Merck Inc has entered into a licensing deal with the Chinese pharmaceutical group Hansoh Pharma to gain access to a preclinical obesity asset, bringing it into a field currently dominated by Eli Lilly and Co and Novo Nordisk A/S. The asset, HS-10535, is an oral small molecule glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist.
A candidate drug for early-stage Parkinson’s disease has failed to show efficacy at Phase 2a despite having demonstrated promise in earlier studies, the co-developer UCB SA announced on 16 December. The drug, minzasolmin, is a small molecule compound designed to inhibit alpha-synuclein misfolding in the brain. Alpha-synuclein is a normal neuronal protein that regulates synaptic vesicle trafficking. However in Parkinson’s disease it misfolds and aggregates into toxic fibrils.
New York Life Investments, a US money manager and its European affiliate Candriam, have entered a partnership under which New York Life, through its affiliate network, will take a 40% minority stake in Andera Partners, the Paris-based investment group. The goal is to jointly expand their pool of clients. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Andera manages €4.3 billion in assets for institutional and private investors. New York Life has a much deeper portfolio with assets under management of $750 billion.
The Swiss neuroscience company Noema Pharma AG has received fresh financing from the private equity group EQT Life Sciences in order to advance its lead drug candidate for two rare diseases and its pipeline of other central nervous system disorders. The Series B extension brings total capital raised in the round up to CHF 130 million ($145.7 million). This figure includes earlier contributions from Forbion, Jeito Capital, and Sofinnova Partners, among the venture capital groups.
Citryll BV, a Dutch biotech, has raised €85 million in a Series B venture capital round to advance a monoclonal antibody drug for two inflammatory diseases by targeting a network of extracellular fibers derived from neutrophils. Neutrophils are the body’s first line of defence against infection. One of their methods of protection is to create neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), primarily composed of DNA from neutrophils, that can engulf and kill pathogens. But these NETs can also contribute to disease if produced in excess.
Novartis is to tap the engineering expertise of Vyriad Inc of the US in order to discover and develop in vivo chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies. Announced on 20 November, the agreement will take cell-based gene therapy technology to a new level by enabling the CAR recombinant protein to be delivered to T cells in their natural environment. This will be done by using a lentiviral delivery system to target and transduce resting T cells and reprogramme them while they are still inside the body. The reprogrammed cells would become potential treatment for patients.
The private equity group, EQT Life Sciences, is lead investor in a €6.5 million Series A financing round for an Irish medical device company that is seeking regulatory approval to market a new product for use in Caesarean-section (C-section) surgery. The company, Nua Surgical Ltd, has developed a self-retaining retractor for the delivery of a baby when a vaginal delivery can’t be done safely. According to EQT, the device enables clinicians to deliver the baby, repair tissue, and identify bleeds with a single-use sterile tool.
GSK Plc is to acquire a candidate immunotherapy from Chimagen Biosciences Ltd of Shanghai, China in order to strengthen its portfolio of candidate products for autoimmune diseases. Announced on 29 October, the agreement involves an upfront payment of $300 million by GSK for full global rights to the asset, CMG1A46, which is a clinical-stage dual CD19 and CD20-targeted T cell engager. In addition, Chimagen will be eligible for development and commercial milestone payments totalling $550 million.
Novartis is to spend up to $1.1 billion to acquire Kate Therapeutics Inc, a San Diego, US-based company which is developing adeno-associated virus gene therapies for neuromuscular diseases. The deal value includes an upfront payment and potential milestone payments. The company’s technology platforms integrate capsid and cargo technologies that are expected to deliver payloads to the appropriate tissues while potentially mitigating off-target effects to tissues such as the liver.
Sanofi SA has branched out into RNA therapeutics with an equity investment in Italy-based Resalis Therapeutics which has an antisense oligonucleotide drug in development as a potential treatment for obesity. Announced on 28 October, the size of the investment wasn’t disclosed. Resalis will use the funds to accelerate development of its product, RES-010, through a Phase 2 proof-of-concept trial. The drug targets miR-22, a non-coding RNA that is understood to play a pivotal role in the molecular pathways underlying obesity.