Patrick Soon-Shiong’s former chief scientist takes cancer company public in $155M reverse merger

Neil Desai, Aadi Bioscience CEO (Specialised Therapeutics via YouTube)

May 17, 2021 08:41 AM EDTUpdated 09:32 AM

Patrick Soon-Shiong's former chief scientist takes cancer company public in $155M reverse merger

Jason Mast

Editor

Editor’s note: Interested in following biopharma’s fast-paced IPO market? You can bookmark our IPO Tracker here.

SPACs have become the preferred fast track for public markets over the past year, but apparently there’s still room for a good, old-fashioned reverse merger.

Cancer-focused Aadi Bioscience announced Monday that they would merge with the struggling public biotech Aerpio Pharmaceuticals. To go along with the merger, Aadi raised $155 million from private investors to commercialize their lead drug, Fyarro, which is now sitting before the FDA. Acuta Capital Partners and KVP Capital led the round.

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At the Inflection Point for the Next Generation of Cancer Immunotherapy

Willem Overwijk, Ph.D.

Vice President, Oncology Research, Nektar Therapeutics

While oncology researchers have long pursued the potential of cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, it was unclear whether these therapies would ever reach patients due to the complexity of manufacturing and costs of development. Fortunately, the recent successful development and regulatory approval of chimeric antigen receptor-engineered T (CAR-T) cells have demonstrated the significant benefit of these therapies to patients.

December 4, 2021 06:00 AM EST

Weekly

All about Omicron; We need more Covid antivirals; GSK snags Pfizer’s vaccine exec; Janet Woodcock’s future at FDA; and more

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly, your review of the week’s top biopharma headlines. Want this in your inbox every Saturday morning? Current Endpoints readers can visit their reader profile to add Endpoints Weekly. New to Endpoints? Sign up here.

The slate of products we’re offering here at Endpoints is continuing to grow, and it’s not just limited to editorial. If you haven’t, do visit your reader profile to see if there are any other weekly newsletters you’re interested in — as each comes with its own exclusive content. And don’t miss the publisher’s note from Arsalan Arif on Endpoints Studio, our latest avenue for advertising on Endpoints.

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Lisa Deschamps, AviadoBio CEO

December 2, 2021 11:07 AM ESTUpdated December 3, 02:00 AM

Financing

Startups

Cell/Gene Tx

Ex-Novartis business head hops over to a gene therapy startup — and she's reeled in $80M for a dash to the clinic

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

Neurologist and King’s College London professor Christopher Shaw has been researching neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and collaborating with drugmakers for the last 25 years in the hopes of pushing new therapies forward. But unfortunately, none of those efforts have come anywhere close to fruition.

“So, you know, after 20 years in the game, I said, ‘Let’s try and do it ourselves,’” he told Endpoints News.

ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Lead Manager / Associate Director of Statistical Genetics

Deep Genomics

Boston, MA, USA

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Merck's new antiviral molnupiravir (Quality Stock Arts / Shutterstock)

December 2, 2021 09:02 AM ESTUpdated 13 hours ago

Pharma

Coronavirus

As Omicron spread looms, oral antivirals appear to be one of the best defenses — now we just need more

Paul Schloesser

Associate Editor

After South African scientists reported a new Covid-19 variant — dubbed Omicron by the WHO — scientists became concerned about how effective vaccines and monoclonal antibodies might be against it, which has more than 30 mutations in the spike protein.

“I think it is super worrisome,” Dartmouth professor and Adagio co-founder and CEO Tillman Gerngross told Endpoints News this weekend. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel echoed similar concerns, telling the Financial Times that experts warned him, “This is not going to be good.”

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Radek Spisek, Sotio CEO (Cellestia)

December 2, 2021 09:33 AM EST

Financing

A quiet Czech biotech bags $315M to drive its blossoming cancer pipeline through the clinic

Kyle Blankenship

Managing Editor

In the rather insular world of biotech, most innovation inevitably comes from a cluster of R&D hubs — Cambridge, San Francisco, etc. But sometimes success stories sprout from rocky soil, which is most certainly the case with Prague-based Sotio Biotech and its suddenly jam-packed pipeline of cancer drugs.

After years in quiet development, Sotio now has $315 million in new funds to play with from parent company PPF Group, an investment group founded in the Czech Republic, as the biotech looks to advance its growing pipeline through early- and mid-stage trials.

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Incorporating External Data into Clinical Trials: Comparing Digital Twins to External Control Arms

Unlearn.AI

Most drug development professionals are familiar with the nerve-racking wait for the read-out of a large trial. If it’s negative, is the investigational therapy ineffective? Or could the failure result from an unforeseen flaw in the design or execution of the protocol, rather than a lack of efficacy? The team could spend weeks analyzing data, but a definitive answer may be elusive due to insufficient power for such analyses in the already completed trial. These problems are only made worse if the trial had lower enrollment, or higher dropout than expected due to an unanticipated event like COVID-19. And if a trial is negative, the next one is likely to be larger and more costly — if it happens at all.

December 3, 2021 04:55 PM EST

Marketing

AbbVie tacks on a new warning to Rinvoq label as safety frets crimp JAK class

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

The safety problems that continue to plague the JAK class as new data highlight some severe side effects are casting a large shadow over AbbVie’s Rinvoq.

As a result of a recent readout highlighting major adverse cardiac events (MACE), malignancy, mortality and thrombosis with Xeljanz a couple of months ago, AbbVie put out a notice late Friday afternoon that it is adding the new class risks to its label for their rival drug.

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Executive Director - Data Analysis - Science & Technology

Alexandria Real Estate Equities

Pasadena, CA

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December 3, 2021 10:55 AM EST

News Briefing

Cell/Gene Tx

Biospecimen M&A: Discovery acquires Albert Li's hepatocyte project; PhIII trial on Bayer's Nubeqa reached primary endpoint

Josh Sullivan

Associate Editor

Paul Schloesser

Associate Editor

Discovery Life Sciences has acquired what claims to be the Maryland-based host of the world’s largest hepatocyte inventory, known as IVAL, to help researchers select more effective and safer drug candidates in the future.

The combined companies will now serve a wider range of drug research and development scientists, according to Albert Li, who founded IVAL in 2004 and is set to join the Discovery leadership team as the CSO of pharmacology and toxicology.

December 3, 2021 10:54 AM EST

R&D

FDA+

Pfizer, Amgen and Janssen seek further clarity on FDA's new benefit-risk guidance

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

Three top biopharma companies are seeking more details from the FDA on how the agency conducts its benefit-risk assessments for new drugs and biologics.

While Pfizer, Amgen and Janssen praised the agency for further spelling out its thinking on the subject in a new draft guidance, including a discussion of patient experience data as part of the assessment, the companies said the FDA could’ve included more specifics in the 20-page draft document.

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