Dealmaking spiked to record levels in April as Covid-19 triggered a fever of partnering. But what happens to collaborations in a new world seen through Zoom?

May 5, 2020 08:12 AM EDT

Dealmaking spiked to record levels in April as Covid-19 triggered a fever of partnering. But what happens to collaborations in a new world seen through Zoom?

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Partnering has never been hotter. M&A not surprisingly turned cold. And venture investing showed signs of cooling.

Reduce the latest monthly numbers on April down to the basics, and that’s the bottom line from DealForma chief Chris Dokomajilar as we take the industry’s temperature for the second big month of an earth-shaking pandemic.

Paint by the numbers and you’ll see an industry that has a collective mind split between the longterm pacts in the works for months and the Covid-19 now.

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Pioneering Click Chemistry in Humans

Shasqi

Reimagining cancer treatments

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020, which is nearly one in six deaths. Recently, we have seen incredible advances in novel cancer therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, cell therapies, and antibody-drug conjugates that have revamped cancer care and improved survival rates for patients.

Despite this significant progress in therapeutic targeting, why are we still seeing such a high mortality rate? The reason is that promising therapies are often limited by their therapeutic index, which is a measure of the effective dose of a drug, relative to its safety. If we could broaden the therapeutic indices of currently available medicines, it would revolutionize cancer treatments. We are still on the quest to find the ultimate cancer medicine – highly effective in several cancer types, safe, and precisely targeted to the tumor site.

Ivan Cheung, Eisai US chairman and CEO

September 27, 2022 08:00 PM EDTUpdated 11:26 AM

R&D

Biogen, Eisai refresh amyloid hypothesis with PhIII showing Alzheimer's med slows cognitive decline

Kyle LaHucik

Associate Editor

In the first look at Phase III data for lecanemab, Eisai and Biogen’s follow-up Alzheimer’s drug to the embattled Aduhelm launch, results show the drug passed with flying colors on a test looking at memory, problem solving and other dementia metrics.

One of the most-watched Alzheimer’s therapies in the clinic, lecanemab met the study’s primary goal on the CDR-SB — Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes — giving the biotech the confidence to ask for full approval in the US, EU and Japan by next March 31. The experimental drug reduced clinical decline on the scale by 27% compared to placebo at 18 months, the companies said Tuesday night Eastern time and Wednesday morning in Japan.

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September 29, 2022 12:46 PM EDT

Pharma

Law

Gilead names 'kingpins' in counterfeit HIV med lawsuit

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

Gilead is mounting its counterfeit drug lawsuit, naming two “kingpins” and a complex network of conspirators who allegedly sold imitation bottles of its HIV meds, some of which ended up in US pharmacies.

The pharma giant on Wednesday provided an update on what it called a “large-scale, sophisticated counterfeiting conspiracy,” accusing two new defendants of “leading and orchestrating” a scheme to sell hundreds of millions of dollars in illegitimate drugs posing as meds such as Biktarvy and Descovy.

ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Senior Quality Assurance Compliance Specialist

Lonza

Houston, TX, USA

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Nooman Haque, head of life sciences and healthcare at Silicon Valley Bank, and John Carroll

September 28, 2022 05:32 PM EDTUpdated 5 hours ago

Editor's note

I’m headed to London soon for #EUBIO22. Care to join me?

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

It was great getting back to a live ESMO conference/webinar in Paris followed by a live pop-up event for the Endpoints 11 in Boston. We’re staying on the road in October with our return for a live/streaming EUBIO22 in London.

Silicon Valley Bank’s Nooman Haque and I are once again jumping back into the thick of it with a slate of virtual and live events on October 12. I’ll get the ball rolling with a virtual fireside chat with Novo Nordisk R&D chief Marcus Schindler, covering their pipeline plans and BD work.

Marcelo Bigal, Ventus Therapeutics CEO

September 29, 2022 07:08 AM EDT

Deals

Novo Nordisk joins Novartis, Roche in NLRP3 arena, betting $70M cash on NASH, cardiometabolic uses

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

As a drug target, the NLRP3 inflammasome has drawn serious interest from Big Pharma, inspiring a series of M&A deals from Novartis and Roche on top of venture investments by others. Now Novo Nordisk is jumping on the bandwagon — and the Danish pharma giant is taking the target where it knows best.

Novo Nordisk is getting its NLRP3 inhibitors from Ventus Therapeutics, a Versant-backed startup that set out to make some of the best NLRP3 drugs out there by incorporating new insights into the structure of the target complex.

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Phillip Gomez, Siga Technologies CEO

September 29, 2022 11:17 AM EDTUpdated 11:54 AM

Deals

Siga nabs $10.7M from the US government in deal for its monkeypox antiviral

Aayushi Pratap

News Reporter

The US government is all set to buy $10.7 million worth of Siga Technologies’ monkeypox oral antiviral, the company announced Thursday.

Of the total doses, $5.1 million worth of oral antivirals called Tpoxx (tecovirimat) will be delivered this year, with the US Department of Defense having the option of buying the rest at a later point.

The new contract follows an earlier one in which the government had purchased $7.4 million worth of Tpoxx from the company.

Vlad Coric, Biohaven CEO (Photo Credit: Andrew Venditti)

September 29, 2022 11:02 AM EDTUpdated 11:22 AM

R&D

As Amylyx decision waits in the wings, Biohaven’s ALS drug sinks (again) in platform trial

Lei Lei Wu

News Reporter

The FDA’s decision on Amylyx’s ALS drug is set to come out sometime Thursday. In a space with few drugs, any approval would be a major landmark.

But elsewhere in the ALS field, things are a bit more tepid.

Thursday morning, Biohaven announced that its drug verdiperstat failed its arm of an ALS platform trial led by Massachusetts General Hospital. According to a press release, the drug did not meet its primary endpoint — improvement on an ALS functional status test — or any key secondary endpoints at 24 weeks. The trial had enrolled 167 patients, giving them either verdiperstat or placebo twice a day.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Head of Quality Systems

Lonza

Lexington, MA, USA

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Renhong Tang, Simcere co-CEO

September 29, 2022 10:55 AM EDT

Deals

China

Almirall partners up with Simcere in potential $500M+ deal — with plans to take IL-2 candidate global

Paul Schloesser

Associate Editor

A Chinese pharma is looking to go international with one of its preclinical candidates, and it’s teaming up with a Spanish company in a new pact potentially worth half a billion dollars to do just that.

Simcere and Almirall announced Thursday that the two companies had reached a deal for Simcere’s IL-2 mutant fusion protein drug candidate, called SIM0278. According to a statement, Almirall gets an exclusive right to develop and commercialize the drug candidate in all indications and markets outside of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

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Work taking place in the clean rooms at Vor (Credit: Vor)

September 29, 2022 11:56 AM EDT

Pharma

Manufacturing

Vor Bio opts to keep manufacturing operations in-house for developing stem cell, CAR-T therapies

Tyler Patchen

News Reporter

While it is not uncommon for a biotech to go down the route of having the product manufactured by a contract organization, one small biotech is looking to keep its card close to its chest.

Vor Biopharma has started manufacturing operations at an in-house facility at its HQ in Cambridge, MA after beginning construction last summer.

According to the biotech, the facility aims to develop Vor’s hematopoietic stem cells (eHSCs) and CAR-T therapies for patients with blood cancers. The site will initially manufacture a clinical supply of its candidate VCAR33allo to support its IND, which is slated to be submitted in the first half of next year. It also plans to transfer the production of VOR33 to the facility. Vor is getting to work quickly as engineering runs for VCAR33allo has started this week.