Endpoints exclusive: Bob Nelsen’s Resilience snags Florida CDMO working with the Defense Department on Covid-19 antibody

Bob Nelsen (Michael Kovac/Getty Images)

April 12, 2021 04:33 PM EDTUpdated April 16, 12:44 PM

Endpoints exclusive: Bob Nelsen's Resilience snags Florida CDMO working with the Defense Department on Covid-19 antibody

Josh Sullivan

Associate Editor

Resilience has only been in existence for less than six months, but Bob Nelsen’s next-gen manufacturing play has made plenty of moves shortly after debuting with an $800 million launch round. Now, the biotech looking to change drug manufacturing is picking up a Florida CDMO partnered with the Department of Defense on a Covid-19 antibody.

Resilience is acquiring CDMO Ology Bioservices in a deal that will add two manufacturing sites to the bicoastal biotech’s footprint as well as a government-backed monoclonal antibody, a source close to the matter said Monday. Financial terms of the deal were not available.

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July 27, 2021 07:03 AM EDT

R&D

In Focus

How one startup foretold the neuroscience renaissance after '50 years of shitshow'

Max Gelman

Editor

In the past couple of years, something curious has happened: Pharma and VC dollars started gushing into neuroscience research.

Biogen’s controversial new Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm has been approved on the basis of removing amyloid plaque from the brain, but the new neuro-focused pharma and biotechs have much loftier aims. Significantly curbing or even curing the most notorious disorders would prove the Holy Grail for a complex system that has tied the world’s best drug developers in knots for decades.

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Ugur Sahin, BioNTech CEO (Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa via AP Images)

July 27, 2021 07:07 AM EDT

R&D

Manufacturing

BioNTech is spearheading an mRNA vaccine development program for malaria, with a tech transfer planned for Africa

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Flush with the success of its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, BioNTech is now gearing up for one of the biggest challenges in vaccine development — which comes without potential profit.

The German mRNA pioneer says it plans to work on a jab for malaria, then transfer the tech to the African continent, where it will work with partners on developing the manufacturing ops needed to make this and other vaccines.

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Bob Bradway, Amgen CEO (Scott Eisen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

July 27, 2021 04:47 PM EDTUpdated 05:04 PM

Deals

Amgen bellies back up to the M&A table for another biotech buyout, this time with a $2.5B deal for an antibody player focused on PSMA

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Five months after Amgen CEO Bob Bradway stepped up to the M&A table and acquired Five Prime for $1.9 billion, following up with the smaller Rodeo acquisition, he’s gone back in for another biotech buyout.

This time around, Amgen is paying $900 million cash while committing up to $1.6 billion in milestones to bag the privately held Teneobio, an antibody drug developer that has expertise in developing new bispecifics and multispecifics. In addition, Amgen cited Teneobio’s “T-cell engager platform, which expands on Amgen’s existing leadership position in bispecific T-cell engagers by providing a differentiated, but complementary, approach to Amgen’s current BiTE platform.”

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director-Regulatory

Icosavax, Inc.

Seattle, WA, USA

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Why is Oncology Drug Development Research Late to the Digital Biomarkers Game?

Tyler Guthrie

During the recent Annual ASCO Meeting, thousands of cancer researchers and clinicians from across the globe joined together virtually to present and discuss the latest findings and breakthroughs in cancer research and care. There were more than 5000+ scientific abstracts presented during this event, yet only a handful involved the use of motion-tracking wearables to collect digital measures relating to activity, sleep, mobility, functional status, and/or quality of life. Although these results were a bit disappointing, they should come as no surprise to those of us in the wearable technology field.

Art Levinson (Calico)

July 27, 2021 10:58 AM EDTUpdated 11:14 AM

Deals

R&D

Google-backed Calico doubles down on anti-aging R&D pact with AbbVie as partners ante up $1B, start to detail drug targets

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Seven years after striking up a major R&D alliance, AbbVie and Google-backed anti-aging specialist Calico are doubling down on their work with a joint, $1 billion commitment to continuing their work together. And they’re also beginning to offer some details on where this project is taking them in the clinic.

According to their statement, each of the two players is putting up $500 million more to keep the labs humming.

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Andrea Pfeifer, AC Immune CEO (AC Immune)

July 27, 2021 10:41 AM EDT

Financing

Deals

Looking to replicate Covid-19 success in neuro, BioNTech backers bet on AC Immune and its newly-acquired Parkinson's vaccine

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

The German billionaires behind BioNTech have found a new vaccine project to back.

Through their family office Athos Service, twin brothers Thomas and Andreas Strüngmann are leading a $25 million private placement into Switzerland’s AC Immune — which concurrently announced that it’s shelling out $58.7 million worth of stock to acquire Affiris’ portfolio of therapies targeting alpha-synuclein, including a vaccine candidate, for Parkinson’s disease.

Christophe Weber, Takeda CEO (Kyodo via AP Images)

July 27, 2021 09:22 AM EDTUpdated 10:42 AM

Deals

R&D

Takeda fleshes out CNS pact with peptide drugmaker, setting aside $3.5B in future milestones

Kyle Blankenship

Managing Editor

One of a suite of drugmakers looking to reinvest in the neuroscience space, Takeda has been aggressive in signing on new partners to help build up its pipeline in that space. But sometimes the best partner is the one you already have.

Takeda will set aside $3.5 billion in future milestones and an undisclosed upfront payment to build out its drug discovery deal with Japanese peptide conjugate maker PeptiDream, adding neurodegeneration to the partnership’s list of CNS targets, the companies said Tuesday.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director, High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Drug Discovery Group

Pliant Therapeutics

South San Francisco, CA, USA

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Michael Henderson, BridgeBio CBO

July 27, 2021 07:30 AM EDTUpdated 08:15 AM

Deals

Bristol Myers Squibb catches the SHP2 wave in a new collaboration deal with BridgeBio

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

Once considered “undruggable,” the phosphatase enzyme SHP2 has seen recent interest from a suite of Big Pharmas, including AstraZeneca, Amgen, Novartis and Merck. Now Bristol Myers Squibb is getting in on the action, with a deal to pair its PD-1 superstar Opdivo with BridgeBio’s SHP2 inhibitor for difficult-to-treat cancers.

BMS and BridgeBio took the wraps off the non-exclusive, co-funded collaboration early Tuesday morning. The “catalyst,” BridgeBio CBO Michael Henderson said, was last year’s virtual JP Morgan conference, where the companies met to discuss early preclinical results they were seeing between SHP2 and immuno-oncology therapies.

July 27, 2021 07:21 AM EDT

FDA+

Coronavirus

Businesses and schools can mandate the use of Covid-19 vaccines under EUAs, DOJ says

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

As public and private companies stare down the reality of the Delta variant, many are now requiring that their employees or students be vaccinated against Covid-19 prior to attending school or to returning or starting a new job. Claims that such mandates are illegal or cannot be used for vaccines under emergency use authorizations have now been dismissed.

Setting the record straight, the Department of Justice on Monday called the mandates legal in a new memo, even when used for people with vaccines that remain subject to EUAs.