BioNTech and Duality Biologics have expanded their existing agreement to include a third antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for solid tumours. The companies announced the first deal covering two ADCs in April this year. Under the terms of the agreement, DualityBio would receive upfront payments totalling $170m and be eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of potentially more than $1.5bn. ADCs are a class of potent cancer therapies combining the selectivity of antibodies with the potent cell-killing properties of chemotherapy or other anti-cancer agents. Unlike chemotherapy, which works by attacking lots of different cells as well as the cancer, ADCs are designed to target and kill tumour cells while sparing healthy cells. Professor Ugur Sahin, chief executive officer and co-founder of BioNTech, said at the time of the first announcement: “Over the last years, the ADC field has made significant progress, overcoming several limitations and demonstrating its potential as ...
MSD – known as Merck & Co in the US and Canada – and Astex Pharmaceuticals have expanded their drug discovery collaboration, with the goal of identifying small-molecule candidates with activity towards a tumour suppressor protein. The partnership will see Astex apply its fragment-based drug discovery platform to develop therapeutics targeting forms of the p53 tumour suppressor protein. The candidates will then be handed off to MSD for further optimisation and preclinical development. MSD is granted an exclusive global licence to research, develop, and commercialise candidates arising under the collaboration. In exchange, Astex will receive an upfront payment of $35m and is eligible for milestone payments totalling approximately $500m per programme, as well as tiered royalties on sales. Harren Jhoti, president and chief executive officer of Astex, said: “Astex is applying its fragment-based drug discovery capability to design and generate small molecule modulators tailored to a wide range of potentially ...
With winnings from its arbitration battle against Johnson & Johnson in hand—alongside a jump in its own product sales—Alkermes seems to be feeling itself heading into the second half of 2023. After the Dublin-based drugmaker won a high-stakes case versus J&J last month, the company bumped up its 2023 sales forecast by $425 million to between $1.55 billion and $1.68 billion. In revealing second-quarter results, the company provided some details behind the new guidance. Alkermes expects J&J’s royalties and interest on late payments for 2022 to come in at around $197 million, while 2023 royalties should land between $265 to $280 million, the company said in an investor presentation (PDF). Those payments relate to J&J’s schizophrenia drug Invega, which uses Alkermes’ NanoCrystal technology and delivered sales of $4.1 billion last year. With the arbitration win in tow, Alkermes generated $617 million this quarter, including $248 million of back royalties and interest from ...
Pictured: Johnson & Johnson Sign in Silicon Valley/Shutterstock, Michael Vi Johnson & Johnson exceeded Wall Street expectations in its second quarter performance. The healthcare products giant posted sales of $25.5 billion in its earnings report on Thursday. Worldwide sales numbers reflected a 6.3% growth for J&J with revenue close to $1 billion higher than analysts expected, thanks in particular to a nearly 10% increase in its medtech sales. Medtech has been on the rebound since patients have returned to non-emergent surgeries like knee and hip replacements, which saw a significant drop during the pandemic. Operational sales for the company’s pharma arm, suffering growth points due to dwindling COVID-19 vaccine sales, was up 3.9%. The second quarter posted no U.S. sales of J&J’s COVID vaccine, with no domestic revenue expected beyond the $747 million from outside the U.S. reported last quarter. Its government contracts are now complete. Primary growth drivers were J&J’s oncology and immunology ...
Bayer recently laid out its ambition to achieve $10 billion in sales from its oncology business by 2030 and become a top 10 cancer drug player. To get there, the company is looking outside for a “midsize acquisition,” Bayer’s oncology chief Christine Roth said.Right now, Bayer’s Nubeqa leads the charge in the company’s oncology department, with its sales projected to peak at more than 3 billion euros. In addition, the company’s acquisitions of Vividion Therapeutics, BlueRock Therapeutics and Noria Therapeutics in recent years have bolstered its research capabilities. “We’ve done a lot of activity to fill our early pipeline,” Roth said in an interview with Fierce Pharma on the sidelines of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 2023 annual meeting. “But if we want to achieve that top 10 spot in the next four to six years, it’s going to take the right midsize acquisition to get there.” Roth agreed ...
Paul Schloesser Associate Editor Clovis Oncology is facing yet another setback with the FDA giving the battled company a complete response letter and rejecting a potential label expansion for its PARP inhibitor Rubraca. A new SEC filing Friday detailed how it received the CRL from the FDA on May 26, rejecting an sNDA for Rubraca as a first-line maintenance treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer who are in complete or partial response to a first-line, platinum-based chemotherapy. FDA said that for the agency to reconsider the application, per the filing, Clovis would need to show results from an overall survival analysis that “do not demonstrate a potential OS detriment.” In the meantime, Clovis said that the FDA’s determination would impact the timing and achievability of milestone payments that Clovis is owed. The company sold rights to its PARP inhibitor to Swiss company pharma& Schweiz GmbH in an April deal ...
Quest Diagnostics is boosting its capabilities in cancer, paying $300 million to acquire a Johns Hopkins University spinout whose technology identifies cancer cells in order to guide treatment decisions. The Secaucus, New Jersey-based diagnostics giant on Thursday announced the cash acquisition of Haystack Oncology. The Baltimore-based startup is part of a growing area in cancer testing called liquid biopsies, tests that detect cancer by finding circulating tumor DNA in a patient’s blood sample. Grail and Guardant Health are among the companies that market tests that detect early signs of cancer, enabling clinicians to intervene sooner. Haystack’s focus is minimal residual disease—detecting cancer cells that remain following initial treatment with surgery or a drug. Test results help clinicians assess how well the initial treatment worked and whether additional treatment, called an adjuvant, is necessary to kill any lingering cancer cells. That’s important because additional treatment, often a chemotherapy, introduces a wide ...
Digital technology company BullFrog AI and Sage Group have entered into a strategic partnership to develop oncology assets. This partnership will focus on exploring joint venture (JV) opportunities for advancing a Phase II ready asset and the preclinical prodrug asset of BullFrog AI. The Phase II ready asset targets glioblastoma, which is an aggressive form of brain cancer. Through the collaboration, BullFrog AI will gain access to Sage Group’s capital resources, clinical and regulatory expertise, as well as contacts network, including innovators and large pharma. BullFrog AI founder and CEO Vin Singh said: “Glioblastoma is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, with a five-year survival rate of less than seven percent. “With the Sage Group’s support, we look forward to identifying the right partner to help us advance clinical development of our oncology programs globally in an effort to bring a revolutionary new treatment option to glioblastoma patients.” Recently, ...
Caris Life Sciences and Flare Therapeutics have announced a partnership to advance the precision oncology pipeline of the latter into clinical trials. The multi-year strategic partnership will leverage latest molecular profiling approaches guiding patient selection and participation to accelerate precision medicine approaches across five of the therapeutic programmes of Flare. It will use the comprehensive molecular tissue and liquid profiling services of Caris including whole transcriptome sequencing and whole exome sequencing for participants in Flare’s clinical trials. Additionally, the partnership will apply Caris’ data and analytics tools to strengthen future enrolment programme for trials and companion diagnostics capabilities. Flare Therapeutics chief development officer Michaela Bowden said: “We understand the importance of shaping translational insights early on as a major area of focus to help ensure efficient drug development at scale and clinical trial preparedness. “With access to Caris’ robust clinico-genomic real-world data, comprehensive molecular profiling and ...
New collaboration to explore the potential clinical benefits of two novel and complementary immuno-oncology mechanisms
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