The zeal for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), a prominent focus for dealmaking in 2023, shows no signs of waning, as Johnson & Johnson greeted attendees of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM) with news of its $2 billion buyout of Ambrx Biopharma Inc., picking up rights to an ADC platform along with a promising candidate targeting advanced prostate cancer. Under the terms, J&J agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of San Diego-based Ambrx for $28 apiece, marketing a 105% premium to the firm’s Jan. 5 closing price. Unsurprisingly, Ambrx’s stock (NASDAQ:AMAM) gained 101.5% to close Jan. 8 at $27.47.
Allogene Therapeutics Inc.’s decision to preferentially pursue first-line treatment of large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) with CAR T cemacabtagene ansegedleucel (cema-cel, previously known as ALLO-501A) met mixed reviews on Wall Street.
Amid a flurry of dealmaking activity to start 2024, Allorion Therapeutics Inc., a 2020 startup based in Natick, Mass., and Guangzhou, China, has been extra busy. Two days after disclosing a potential $540 million deal with Astrazeneca plc, Allorion inked a licensing agreement with Avenzo Therapeutics Inc. that could total more than $1 billion.
Following up on a 2021 partnership with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Bridgene Biosciences Inc. has signed up a second international drug company, Galapagos NV, to use its chemoproteomic platform, IMTAC (Isobaric Mass Tagged Affinity Characterization), to discover small-molecule drug candidates.
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH’s start to the new year includes two fresh deals across two continents. BI struck one deal with Kunshan, China-based Suzhou Ribo Life Science Co. Ltd. and its Mölndal, Sweden-based subsidiary, Ribocure Pharmaceuticals AB, to develop small interfering RNA (siRNA) treatments for nonalcoholic or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. It struck a second deal with San Francisco-based 3T Biosciences Inc. to develop cancer immunotherapies, which builds on an earlier collaboration formed last year. Combined, the two deals are worth more than $2.5 billion.
Umoja Biopharma Inc.’s gene delivery platform that combines a third-generation lentiviral vector gene approach with a novel T-cell targeting and activation surface complex brought Abbvie Inc. to the table for a pair of deals that could be worth as much as $1.44 billion.
The digital ink is barely dry from Jan. 3’s $1 billion ADC deal with Medilink Therapeutics Co. Ltd. and another $1 billion agreement, this one with Remix Therapeutics Inc., but Roche Holding AG is writing another big check. The newest addition to its billion-dollar collaboration spree is with privately held Moma Therapeutics Inc.
Genome editing specialist Tome Biosciences Inc. now has all the bases covered, after arriving on the scene in December with $213 million funding and three weeks later announcing the acquisition of fellow precision editing company, Replace Therapeutics Inc. for up to $185 million.
With its launch barely three years in the rearview mirror, Remix Therapeutics Inc. has inked its second potential $1 billion pharma collaboration, drawing Roche Holding AG to the table with the promise of its RNA processing platform and the potential to develop small-molecule therapeutics targeting the underlying drivers of disease. At the same time, the Watertown, Mass.-based firm added $60 million in a venture round, bringing its total financing to date to $201 million.
Allorion Therapeutics Inc. could receive $40 million in up-front and near-term payments from Astrazeneca plc in the companies’ exclusive option and global license deal. The two plan to develop and commercialize an L858R mutated allosteric inhibitor for treating EGFR inhibitor-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer.
RSS
