NEWS
£45m
Business digest
Investment by Cancer Research UK over the next five years into its network of clinical trials units (CTUs) in the Universities of Cardiff, Birmingham, Glasgow, Southampton, Leeds and in London, The Institute of Cancer Research, UCL, and Queen Mary University. Each of the charity’s CTUs has a different focus, including children’s cancer trials, cancer screening, and population research.
£118,000 €1m
Adverum Biotechnologies, a clinical-stage gene therapy company headquartered in California, US, is extending its collaboration agreement with US discovery phase pharmaceutical company, Editas Medicine, which develops therapies based on CRISPR– Cas9 gene editing technology. The companies will continue to explore the delivery of genome editing medicines to treat rare and inherited eye diseases through to Q3 2018.
Awarded to Cambridge, UK-based drug discovery services company, Domainex, by Innovate UK, for a 12-month period, to develop a biophysical screening method for G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The investment should help the company accelerate the discovery of new drugs.
Astellas Pharma, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, has acquired Seattle-based biotechnology company, Universal Cells, which focuses on developing stem cell therapies. With Universal Cells’ proprietary Universal Donor Cell technology, Astellas aims to create off- the-shelf cell therapy products that have a reduced risk of rejection.
Funding from French investment bank, BpiFrance, as an interest-free loan, to biotechnology company Nosopharm for pre-clinical research into the company’s main drug candidate NOSO-502 in the new class of antibiotics known as odilorhabdins. These antibiotics target multidrug-resistant Gram- negative pathogens, such as E. coli. Nosopharm plans to submit a clinical trial authorisation application in 2019 with the first human clinical trials of NOSO-502 expected in 2020.
€3.9bn
Global life sciences company, Bayer and Mitsui Chemicals Agro (MCAG), a subsidiary of Japanese chemicals company Mitsui Chemicals, have signed a licence agreement for developing and marketing quinofumelin, a new fungicide invented by MCAG. Under the terms of the agreement, MCAG has granted Bayer worldwide exclusive rights to develop and commercialise quinofumelin-based products for crop use, except in selected countries and regions, including Japan, where MCAG holds exclusive or shares co-exclusive rights with Bayer.
On the table offer from Sanofi to acquire Ablynx, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of nanobodies, propriety therapeutic proteins based on single- domain antibody fragments. Ablynx has a pipeline of more than 45 proprietary and partnered candidates for a wide range of therapeutic areas such as haematology, inflammation, immuno-oncology and respiratory diseases.
The Belgium-based JLINX – a collaboration between Janssen Pharmaceutica, headquartered in Beerse, Belgium, and life sciences investment firm, Bioqube Ventures – will become part of US pharmaceuticals company Johnson & Johnson’s innovation network, when it will be renamed a JLABS. Based at the Beerse Janssen R&D campus, JLABS @ BE will be the first JLABS in Europe and the 10th globally, and will accommodate up to 30 life science startups across the healthcare spectrum.
Life sciences company, Cambrex, headquartered in New Jersey, US, is expanding its chemical and analytical development capabilities at its Charles City, Iowa plant. The building and validation of equipment are expected to be completed by Q1 2018.
Global biopharmaceutical company, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Nektar Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in San Francisco, US, have agreed a joint clinical development plan for Nektar’s immuno-oncology technology NKTR- 214 with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo and Opdivo plus Yervoy across nine tumour types. BMS will pay Nektar $1.85bn upfront. Nektar is also eligible to receive an additional $1.78bn in various milestone payments. The companies will share global profits and development costs on a pre-agreed basis. Nektar will retain the ability to develop NKTR-214 with other anti-cancer agents; BMS will retain 100% of product revenues for its own medicines. In addition, BMS has entered into a multi-target research collaboration with Sirenas, a biotechnology company that uses computational approaches, such as its propriety data mining technology, to discover propriety therapeutics derived from the global microbiome.
American laboratory services company, Charles River Laboratories has been granted access to the high-throughput screening capabilities (HTS) at AstraZeneca’s Centre for Lead Discovery in Cambridge, UK. The collaboration, under AZ’s open innovation programme, also enables Charles River to use state- of-the-art assay detection platforms for label free and imaging-based assays, as well novel technologies, including acoustic mass spectrometry. In addition, Charles River has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire US-based contract research organisation, MPI Research, for around $800m in cash, subject to customary closing adjustments.
Netherlands-based ISA Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage immunotherapy company, and UK-based cancer immunotherapy company, Scancell have agreed a licensing and collaboration agreement to use ISA’s Amplivant adjuvant technology for manufacturing, development and commercialisation of Scancell’s first Moditope candidate, Modi-1. This partnership aims to provide a new treatment option for patients with triple negative breast cancer, ovarian cancer, sarcomas, and other solid tumours.
12 02 | 2018
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