Deals & M&A

Deal Snapshot: Seeking to bring a disease-modifying Parkinson’s drug to market, Novartis will team with UCB on developing and commercializing UCB0599, a Phase II oral alpha-synuclein inhibitor.

After returning to the neuroscience space in the summer through a big-money deal with Alector, GlaxoSmithKline is setting up an institute with the University of Oxford that will target neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, frontal temporal dementia, ALS and pain.

A US FDA review panel has given a lukewarm reception to molnupiravir, while Inovio is assessing its vaccine candidates against the new omicron variant, J&J nears a South African vaccine deal with Aspen, and South Korea brings in new COVID-19 measures. Meanwhile, Serum exports Novavax vaccine, Bharat looks at Covaxin in Omicron and Ocugen's Covaxin trial put on hold. 

As well as buying Origimm, the French giant will also apply its mRNA vaccine platform, acquired through the recent $3.2bn acquisition of Translate Bio, to discover and develop other acne vaccines, aided by the Vienna-headquartered firm's know-how in the field.

After investing more than €23m in Sanifit, the Spanish firm being acquired by Vifor Pharma, Caixa Capital's director of life sciences investments spoke to Scrip about the venture capital firm's long-term approach.

Lengo’s preclinical LNG-451, along with Blueprint’s BLU-945 and BLU-701, could create a portfolio of therapies covering 97% of non-small cell lung cancer cases involving EGFR exon mutations.

Athenex expands its portfolio of T-cell receptor therapy technology under NCI license agreement; PDS Biotechnology accesses institute’s TARP tumor antigen technology.

Regeneron is investing heavily to advance five vaccine programs with Nykode Therapeutics, the Norwegian company formerly known as Vaccibody.

Two recent licensing deals involving Chinese firms underscore the record level of agreements being inked between innovative domestic biotechs and generic drug makers, at a time when corporate valuations and geopolitical tensions have made cross-border transactions harder to grab.

GSK enters the NASH race with a mid-stage candidate while Arrowhead gets to focus its R&D spending on candidates it may bring to market itself.

Public Company Edition: SVB Leerink predicts a rebound from an ongoing trough in biotech stock valuations during the second quarter of 2022. Also, Vaxxinity launched the third US IPO of November, bringing the year’s total to 102 and BridgeBio led recent financings with a $750m debt agreement. 

Deal Snapshot: Neurocrine expanded its pipeline with rights to subtype-selective muscarinic M4, M1 and dual M1/M4 receptor agonists discovered by Sosei.