Amgen has come up trumps against Sanofi and J&J to acquire Horizon Therapeutics for $116.50 per share. The megamerger, announced this morning, will see Amgen pay around $26.4 billion to acquire Horizon Therapeutics, adding 12 marketed medicines, a pipeline of over 20 development programs, and more than 2,000 employees globally. The offer Amgen CEO Bob Bradway described the deal as “a compelling opportunity,” consistent with his firm’s strategy of “delivering long-term growth by providing innovative medicines that address the needs…

Full-Life Technologies, a year-old Brussels-Shanghai radiotherapeutics company, will acquire New Jersey’s Focus-X Therapeutics for up to $245 million. Using its proprietary peptide engineering technology. Focus-X has built a portfolio of eight radiopharmaceuticals targeting various cancers. Its lead assets are a prostate specific membrane antigen (PMSA)-targeted peptide for advanced prostate cancer and a neurotensin receptor type 1 (NTSR1)-targeted peptide for pancreatic cancer. Focus-X shareholders will receive an upfront payment, up to $245 million in milestones plus royalties on sales. Founded in 2020,…

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded Touchlight $2.4 million in funding to further preclinical development of its doggybone DNA vaccine platform. According to Touchlight, the funding will be used to advance preclinical data that has shown the potential of nanoparticle-formulated doggybone DNA (dbDNA) to provide strong antibody titers and durable T cell responses following vaccine administration. Part of the grant will also be put towards investigating the performance of dbDNA for therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) manufacturing. If the…

AstraZeneca will dive into the solid tumor cell therapy space through the acquisition of T-cell receptor therapy firm Neogene Therapeutics. The deal, set to close in the first quarter 2023, sees Anglo-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca shell out $200 million upfront to buy Neogene, though the total could be up to $320 million depending on milestones. Neogene is a developer and manufacturer of next-generation, T-cell receptor therapies (TCR-Ts) targeting neoantigens in solid cancers. The firm’s technology platform identifies the neoantigens of…

Sartorius BIA Separations (BIA) and Exopharm have signed a joint research agreement to address the technical challenges of large-scale exosomes for non-viral drug delivery. BIA – a chromatography firm acquired by Sartorius in October 2020 for $423 million – will use its Convective Interaction Media (CIM) monolith chromatography alongside Exopharm’s patented LEAP technology to advance large-scale therapeutic exosome production and commercialization. BIA claims its CIM monolith chromatography columns allow high-throughput, resolution separation, and capacity. Furthermore, the firm says it has…

The acquisition of B. Braun Medical AG Switzerland’s manufacturing assets will advance the launch of personalized skin regeneration therapy, EpiDex, says Healiva. Healiva, a firm that delivers medicine for individuals with chronic and acute wounds, has acquired pharmaceutical device company, B.Braun’s, manufacturing assets for an undisclosed fee. The acquisition includes a qualified cell bank, which Healiva says is vital for the GMP-compliant production of its first cell therapy product, EpiDex. According to Healiva, the acquisition of a qualified fibroblast cell…

RVAC Medicines and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) will develop solutions to construct mRNA manufacturing and analytics capabilities in Singapore. RVAC, a messenger RNA (mRNA) technology platform firm headquartered in Singapore, will work with research and development (R&D) agency A*STAR to jointly establish a laboratory. The joint laboratory will be located at A*STAR’S Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) in Singapore and will be used to advance a preclinical production platform, which will enable the generation of raw materials…

iBio is looking to divest its CDMO services in order to transform into an antibody discovery and development firm. Artificial intelligence (AI) precision antibody firm iBio has said that it is seeking to divest its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) so it can restructure into an antibody discovery and development company, which will result in 50% annualized cost savings. On the back of this transition, the firm hopes to invest in a pipeline of immune-oncology assets and an AI-based…

Through the collaboration and license agreement, CSL Seqirus will access Arcturus Therapeutics’ late-stage self-amplifying mRNA (sa-mRNA) vaccine platform technology.  Arcturus will grant CSL Seqirus (part of CSL Limited) a license to its sa-mRNA technology in order to support the research, development, production, and commercialization of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, as well as influenza, pandemic preparedness, and a further three global respiratory infectious diseases. “This collaboration on next generation mRNA is another example of CSL’s relentless pursuit of disruptive innovation when public…

Korean drugmaker Celltrion has paid KRW 1 billion ($700,000) to access Pinot Bio’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) linker-payload technology. The PINOT-ADC platform, comprising of an independent drug and linker technology, overcomes the resistance limitations of existing ADC drugs, according to developer Pinot Bio. As such, fellow Korean firm Celltrion has tapped up the technology, forging a deal for up to 15 ADC candidates targeting solid tumor cancers using the platform. According to the Korea Biomedical Review, on top of the KRW…