News

UK-based Antiverse Ltd is to extend a collaboration with GlobalBio Inc, a US antibody engineering company, to identify new checkpoint inhibitors for cancer. This follows the successful generation of two candidate anti-PD-1 antibodies that are now entering preclinical development. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The collaboration combines Antiverse’s discovery technology, which is based on artificial intelligence, with GlobalBio’s semisynthetic libraries for the discovery and optimisation of antibody-based therapeutics.

The Roche Group is to pay $7.1 billion upfront to acquire Telavant Holdings Inc, developer of a late-stage antibody therapeutic for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The deal also includes a near-term milestone payment of $150 million.

Telavant’s lead product, RVT-3101, is a monoclonal antibody that inhibits TL1A, a member of the tumour necrosis family which is expressed in immune cells. It is abnormally expressed in autoimmune diseases, including IBD.

Agomab Therapeutics NV, a Belgian biotech founded in 2017 to explore the potential of a critical biological pathway to achieve tissue repair, closed a $100 million Series C financing round on 11 October to support clinical development of a drug for fibrostenosing Crohn’s disease. The drug, AGMB-129, is a small molecule inhibitor of ALK5 (also known as TGF beta receptor 1), a regulator of fibrosis. Fidelity Management & Research Company led the round, with participation from new investors EQT Life Sciences, Canaan, Dawn Biopharma and existing investors.

Professors Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of vaccines against Covid-19. Their findings have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system according to the Nobel Assembly, which awards the prize.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 has been awarded to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots. Quantum dots are nanoparticles consisting of just a few thousand atoms whose size determines their properties. Their wide-ranging uses include television screens and computer monitors, LED lamps, as well as applications to illuminate tumour tissue in surgery.

MinervaX ApS of Denmark announced receipt on 11 October of €54 million in an upsized venture financing event to support its candidate prophylactic vaccine against the Group B streptococcus bacterium, a cause of serious illness in newborns. The financing syndicate includes new investors EQT Life Sciences and OrbiMed, with participation from nine other investment groups. It will raise MinervaX’s financial reserves to €125 million, enabling the company to start a Phase 3 trial of the vaccine for maternal immunisations in 2024. A vaccine is also under investigation for older adults.

The European Medicines Agency has given a positive opinion to a new drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a genetic disorder primarily affecting males, which can lead to progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. The developer is Santhera Pharmaceuticals AG of Switzerland. The drug, Agamree (vamorolone), is a small molecule anti-inflammatory medicine that is being positioned as an alternative to corticosteroids, the current standard of care.

Pfizer Inc has received regulatory approval in the US for a personalised, or precision, medicine for lung cancer that demonstrated efficacy in a single-arm trial in both treatment naïve and previously treated patients with BRAF-V600E mutant metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. The medicine, Braftovi (encorafenib) and Mektovi (binimetinib), is a combination therapy that was first approved in 2018, but has since been updated. The newest approval includes two companion diagnostics that can identify BRAF V600E mutations in plasma or tumour tissue.

In a boost for precision medicine, Bristol Myers Squibb Co is to spend up to $5.8 billion to buy Mirati Therapeutics Inc of the US which uses molecular biology to design drugs that are intended to arrest cancer growth by targeting specific genetic mutations. BMS will pay $58 per share for the precision medicine company, representing an outlay of $4.8 billion. If Mirati shareholders decide to buy additional non-tradeable contingent value rights, the value of the acquisition could rise to as much as $5.8 billion.

On 4 October, Novartis completed the spin-off of Sandoz, its generic and biosimilar business unit, enabling it to focus exclusively on the development and sale of proprietary medicines. The long anticipated transaction involved the listing of Sandoz Group AG shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich, Switzerland and its American Depositary Receipts on an over-the-counter market in the US. Each shareholder of Novartis received one Sandoz share for every five Novartis shares held, or one Sandoz ADR for every five Novartis ADRs.