Almost a year to the day after Sanofi closed on its $3.7 billion Principia buyout, handing CEO Martin Babler $81 million for his chunk of equity, the biotech exec is ending his sabbatical and getting back to the helm of a startup. And he’s bringing the old Principia team along with him for the R&D scrimmage ahead.

Babler is taking over the top post at Esker Therapeutics from June Lee, who helped found the upstart, which Foresite hatched out of its labs and endowed with a $70 million launch round. The immunology specialist broke out of stealth mode back in May with a tiny staff and a Phase I plan for a TYK2 drug — initially for psoriasis — part of its plan to address genetically defined patient groups in a field dominated by blockbusters and blockbuster wannabes.

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Eikon Therapeutics announced three business development deals on Thursday, effectively dropping in a pipeline of cancer drugs alongside more than $100 million in fresh funding.

The Hayward, CA-based company has become one of biotech’s richest startups since its 2019 founding, having raised nearly $775 million. It’s developing a massive, automated research approach built around Nobel Prize-winning microscope science to peer inside cells and watch proteins in action. After its Series B last year, PitchBook reported a $3.02 billion valuation. And while CEO Roger Perlmutter declined to comment on that figure, he said its first tranche of nearly $106 million in Series C funding is a “meaningful step-up to our Series B valuation.”

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Embarking on a personal mission after his best friend’s mother was diagnosed with a mutation-driven case of frontotemporal dementia, Michael Horowitz has pulled together $8 million in venture funding at Modulo Bio to create small molecules for neurodegenerative diseases.

The San Diego and Bay Area biotech will select its lead development candidate and some backup options within six months and then raise a Series A to investigate therapeutics for C9orf72 mutation-driven cases of ALS and frontotemporal dementia, Horowitz told Endpoints News.

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As a string of new gene therapy startups aims to create treatments without the go-to shuttling method of an AAV virus, and as multiple gene editing biotechs look to do the same, one such startup is coming to a close.

Summation Bio, backed by at least $24 million in Series A funds, is “terminating operations” next month, per an employee’s LinkedIn profile update. (According to their LinkedIn profile, an employee said the company raised $60 million in the round.) Another employee took to the networking site last week to say the circumstances were “insurmountable,” noting that “despite all-out effort and error-free execution, the science, this time, was elusive.”

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Members of the European Parliament have called on EU countries to develop national action plans against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), calling it a top-three priority health threat.

Parliament on Thursday announced recommendations for the fight against AMR, including national action plans that must be updated at least every two years, an EU-level database tracking AMR and antimicrobial use and increased partnership between the pharma industry, patient groups and academia.

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Sandoz, a generics maker that Novartis plans to spin off later this year, has picked its new headquarters — and it’s only 2.4 miles away from its current digs on the Novartis campus.

The Novartis unit said Thursday that it plans to move to an office building in Basel called Elsässertor sometime in mid-2024.

Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor said in a news release that the location in the heart of Basel “will allow us to create a working environment that meets our business needs,” citing the talent pool in the Swiss city. Sandoz added that the workspace is designed to allow for “closer collaboration and teamwork.”

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Roche is planning to make some changes to its subsidiary’s manufacturing network in California.

The Swiss pharma announced Wednesday that it plans to divest from Genentech’s manufacturing facility in Vacaville, CA, around 58 miles northeast of San Francisco. According to a statement from Roche, the move is part of a “broader strategy” to bring its manufacturing capabilities in line with its future pipeline. Roche is starting the process of finding a buyer for the site but has not named any candidates yet.

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