News

Sanofi SA is to acquire Kadmon Holdings Inc of the US for $1.9 billion, adding a recently Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) to its transplant portfolio. The acquisition, announced on 8 September, has been unanimously approved by the boards of both companies.

Sanofi’s transplant portfolio currently consists of Thymoglobulin (anti-thymocyte globulin), an antibody preparation that acts as a broad immunosuppressive and immunomodulating agent, and Mozobil (plerixafor), an haematopoietic stem cell mobiliser.

Adaptimmune Therapeutics Plc has expanded its presence in the field of allogeneic cell therapy under a collaboration with Genentech aimed at developing new medicines for cancer. Originally founded to research T cell receptor (TCR) technology for autologous applications, Adaptimmune has recently been branching out into allogeneic, or ‘off-the-shelf’ therapies.

Two Phase 3 trials of bumetanide, which was being investigated in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, have been discontinued due to a lack of efficacy, the sponsors Les Laboratoires Servier SAS and Neurochlore SAS announced on 7 September.

Owlstone Medical Ltd of the UK has raised $58 million in a Series D financing round to advance its diagnostics services for cancer and inflammatory and infectious diseases. The core technology is based on a sensor that can be programmed into software to detect biomarkers of disease in human breath.

A private equity consortium has made an $8.1 billion takeover bid for Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi) which has a portfolio of marketed and experimental treatments for rare diseases as well as haemophilia. Announced on 2 September, the bid has been approved by the Sobi Board of Directors and is being recommended to shareholders. The acceptance period for the offer starts on 22 September and is expected to conclude on 21 October. The consortium includes Advent International Corp and Aurora Investment Pte Ltd, an affiliate of Singapore’s sovereign-wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd.

The European Union and AstraZeneca Plc have reached a settlement on the supply of Vaxzevria, the company’s Covid-19 vaccine, to the union ensuring that vaccine deliveries through March 2022 will meet the terms of an advance purchase agreement concluded on 27 August 2020.

Galapagos NV continued to roll out its consolidation strategy in the second quarter following the decision, taken with partner Gilead Sciences Inc in late 2020, not to pursue a US marketing authorisation for the rheumatoid arthritis drug Jyseleca. In May, the company announced plans to focus its research efforts on inflammation, fibrosis and kidney disease, while discontinuing research in metabolic diseases and osteoarthritis.

France-based Eyevensys SA has raised $12 million from a syndicate led by Korea Investment Partners to accelerate development of its preclinical programme, EYS809, for treating wet age-related macular degeneration. The Series B round extension was also supported by existing investors. The Eyevensys technology is a non-viral gene therapy delivery platform that uses an electrotransfection system to deliver DNA plasmids encoding therapeutic proteins into the eye.

Two US biotech companies have launched a new partnership in order to use gene editing to develop medicines for multiple diseases including Type 1 diabetes. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, known for its work in cystic fibrosis, and Arbor Biotechnologies Inc, a genetic disease specialist, will used Crispr gene editing technology to develop ex vivo engineered cell therapies. The new partnership, announced on 24 August, builds on a collaboration established in 2018.

The Roche Group has entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement with Shape Therapeutics Inc of Seattle, US giving it access to an RNA editing technology that reportedly has promise for neurological disorders. Shape was founded in 2018, and since then has raised $147.5 million in Series A and Series B financing rounds. The deal with Roche, announced on 24 August, could generate as much as $3 billion in milestone payments for Shape should the collaboration yield marketable products.