Hookipa Pharma Inc.’s nearly $1 billion collaboration with Roche Holding AG dissolved along with 30% of the company’s staff. The New York-based company said Roche ended the October 2022 deal involving the HB-700 program in treating KRAS mutated cancers but did not say why the agreement fell apart. Leerink Partners analyst Andrew Berens wrote Jan. 29 that the firm spoke to management, which indicated the program was progressing according to plan and that Roche's decision was based more on its own internal pipeline strategy, lessening its focus on oncology after high profile failures vs. the program having issues in development.

Shares of Corbus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:CRBP) doubled on opening Jan. 26 and ended the day up a whopping 249% as investors got a look at data from a first-in-human study testing next-generation Nectin-4-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) CRB-701. Licensed from CSPC Pharmaceutical Group for $7.5 million up front in February 2023, CRB-701 has IND clearance from the U.S. FDA, and Corbus plans to start its own clinical testing in the first quarter of 2024.

The first IPO of 2024 is a greatly upsized one from CG Oncology Inc., which is selling 20 million shares (NASDAQ:CGON) of its common stock at $19 each. Shares closed Jan. 25 95.6% higher at $37.17 each. The company initially had looked to raise about $200.6 million by selling its shares somewhere from $16 to $18 each but adjusted its thinking before the Jan. 25 debut, now anticipating gross proceeds of $389 million.

IMU Biosciences Ltd. has raised £11.5 million (US$14.7 million) in a series A round to further develop and commercialize profiling technology that can identify from a blood sample which of more than 2,000 cell types are present in an individual’s immune system.

PDC*line Pharma SA has received €4.7 million (US$5.1 million) in public funding as part of a €12.5 million project to apply its allogeneic leukemia-derived dendritic cell line in the development of personalized vaccines for treating colorectal cancer.