Dave Tapol­czay, CEO Life Arc

Sci­en­tists with the UK’s MRC Tech­nol­o­gy played a key role in hu­man­iz­ing the an­ti­body that would go on to be­come Keytru­da, Mer­ck’s new flag­ship check­point in­hibitor. And the wind­fall of cash that they get in a roy­al­ty stream from that ef­fort is fi­nanc­ing a makeover and a mis­sion to in­vest the cash, to fund the ig­ni­tion of new dis­cov­ery work aimed at spawn­ing a wave of new biotech prod­uct de­vel­op­ment projects.

As of to­day, MRC Tech­nol­o­gy is LifeArc, and the game plan there is to fund £500 mil­lion of new work on an­timi­cro­bials, neu­ro­science, per­son­al­ized on­col­o­gy and res­pi­ra­to­ry med­i­cine.

“The name LifeArc bet­ter re­flects what we achieve in be­ing the arc or bridge be­tween great sci­ence and its ap­pli­ca­tion to help pa­tients,” said LifeArc CEO Dave Tapol­czay.

The cash stream from Mer­ck has been swelling as the phar­ma gi­ant has rushed to stake out a lead­ing role in the PD-(L)1 field, jump­ing ahead of Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb — at least for the mo­ment — in key ar­eas like lung can­cer.

Now the new­ly dubbed LifeArc al­so has the cash to set up two small funds that will back aca­d­e­m­ic re­searchers fi­nanced by oth­er or­ga­ni­za­tions as well as an ear­ly-stage fund for new drugs. And the Mer­ck mon­ey has fi­nanced new digs as well for its 80 sci­en­tists in­volved in an­ti­body and small mol­e­cule re­search at Steve­nage, with a new fa­cil­i­ty in Ed­in­burgh as well.

The an­nounce­ment at LifeArc came just ahead of Medicxi’s news that it is rolling out a new $300 mil­lion late-stage biotech fund, adding fur­ther to the amount of cash avail­able for biotechs in the re­gion. The UK’s Gold­en Tri­an­gle has tra­di­tion­al­ly lagged be­hind the big glob­al hubs in Boston/Cam­bridge and the Bay Area, but it re­mains a vi­tal part of the glob­al life sci­ence R&D scene with stel­lar sci­ence at top in­sti­tu­tions.

The German life science group Sartorius will be picking up French contract manufacturer Polyplus for the price of €2.4 billion, or $2.6 billion.

On Friday, Sartorius announced the acquisition through its French subgroup, Sartorius Stedim Biotech, which will be acquiring Polyplus from private investors ARCHIMED and WP GG Holdings IV. Polyplus has 270 employees and produces materials and components that go into making viral vectors that are used in cell and gene therapies. This includes DNA/RNA reagents as well as plasmid DNA. Polyplus has locations in France, Belgium, China and the US.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended nine drugs for approval this week while also giving thumbs up for six expanded indications, including Novo Nordisk’s approved obesity medication Wegovy for younger people. Wegovy is already approved as an obesity treatment in the EU for adults, and the new indication would allow prescriptions for adolescents aged 12 and older.

RNA biotech GreenLight Biosciences has been handed an offer for potential acquisition.

GreenLight said in a release that it has received a non-binding “indication of interest” from Fall Line Endurance Fund to acquire GreenLight’s capital stock for $0.60 per share in cash. The release said any potential agreement between the two parties would depend on certain conditions.

Through a special committee, the biotech will evaluate the offer but added there’s no certainty a deal will go forward. GreenLight will also not make any more announcements until a deal comes through or “otherwise determines” a statement is necessary.