In No­vem­ber, Pfiz­er dis­closed it’s spun out the Phase II dual JAK1/TYK2 in­hibitor to a start­up formed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with an un­named, ex­pe­ri­enced part­ner.

We now know who the part­ner is. And as Pfiz­er and Roivant of­fi­cial­ly take the wraps off Pri­o­vant Ther­a­peu­tics, the com­pa­nies re­veal that they have start­ed two reg­is­tra­tional tri­als of the drug, bre­poc­i­tinib, as part of a broad­er plan to de­vel­op a big, first-in-class fran­chise span­ning mul­ti­ple or­phan and spe­cial­ty au­toim­mune dis­eases.

Ben Zim­mer, a sea­soned mem­ber of the Roivant team, is lead­ing the ven­ture as CEO.

Pfiz­er li­censed com­mer­cial rights for both oral and top­i­cal bre­poc­i­tinib in the US and Japan to Pri­o­vant. The small biotech al­so scored rights to a TYK2 in­hibitor dubbed rop­sac­i­tinib.

Pri­o­vant is gun­ning for two ini­tial in­di­ca­tions: a Phase III study is test­ing oral bre­poc­i­tinib in der­mato­myosi­tis, an im­mune-me­di­at­ed dis­ease where pa­tients ex­pe­ri­ence skin rash and mus­cle weak­ness, with high­er risks of lung dis­ease and heart fail­ure; and it’s al­so en­rolling a Phase IIb study in sys­temic lu­pus ery­the­mato­sus.

Ruth Ann Vleugels

Ruth Ann Vleugels, di­rec­tor of the Con­nec­tive Tis­sue Dis­ease Clin­ics and Au­toim­mune Skin Dis­eases Pro­gram at Brigham and Women’s Hos­pi­tal/Har­vard Med­ical School, high­light­ed how dual TYK2/JAK1 in­hi­bi­tion “may re­sult in su­pe­ri­or block­ade of type I in­ter­fer­on, a key cy­tokine fam­i­ly im­pli­cat­ed in der­mato­myosi­tis patho­gen­e­sis.”

Matt Gline

Ever since its found­ing by Vivek Ra­maswamy eight years ago, Roivant has tried to build a busi­ness on flip­ping drugs from Big Phar­ma through a net­work of “vant” star­tups. And de­spite some spec­tac­u­lar ear­ly flops, in-li­cens­ing re­mains a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of cur­rent CEO Matt Gline’s vi­sion for Roivant to be­come a new kind of phar­ma — a plan that Pfiz­er could clear­ly get be­hind as CSO Mikael Dol­sten praised Roivant’s “track record in late-stage in­flam­ma­tion and im­munol­o­gy drug de­vel­op­ment.”

The part­ners didn’t dis­close any fi­nan­cials around the deal or how much it’s ded­i­cat­ing to Pri­o­vant; Pfiz­er is re­tain­ing a 25% stake in Pri­o­vant.

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.

A public T cell biotech’s chief executive has decided to leave the company.

TScan Therapeutics said Friday morning that CEO David Southwell stepped down earlier this week, leaving both his chief executive and board member roles. Filling in is Gavin MacBeath, the company’s CSO and COO. He became the acting CEO on Tuesday, and will continue to remain CSO and COO, TScan’s announcement read.

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.