Monday, September 14, 2020 Daily Archives

Lumen Bioscience lands $16m to engineer “edible†antibody drugs

by

If Lumen Bioscience achieves its goals, patients will be able to take its drugs the same way some people supplement breakfast: a spoonful heaped onto a bowl of cereal or mixed into juice. The startup harnesses spirulina, protein-rich cyanobacteria touted by many health enthusiasts as a “superfood.†Lumen CEO Brian Finrow acknowledges spirulina’s health benefits, but that’s not why his company embraces it. Seattle-based Lumen turns spirulina into tiny factories that churn out therapeutic antibodies. Finrow says the Lumen technology…

September 14, 2020

Gilead adds ‘cornerstone’ cancer drug in $21bn Immunomedics buyout

by

Gilead Sciences is acquiring Immunomedics in a $21 billion deal, the latest in a string of transactions to bolster its cancer drug portfolio. The acquisition announced Sunday comes five months after Morris Plains, New Jersey-based Immunomedics won FDA approval for cancer drug Trodelvy (sacitizumab govitecan). The regulatory decision covers triple negative breast cancer but the drug, projected to become a blockbuster seller, is also being evaluated in other types of cancer. According to deal terms announced Sunday, Foster City, CA-based Gilead has…

September 14, 2020

With no biopharma slowdown in sight, Cytiva plans $500m operational boost

by

Cytiva’s five-year manufacturing growth strategy includes expanding facilities and 24/7 shift patterns to support continued double-digit biopharma growth and a COVID-19 tailwind In April, Danaher Corporation completed its $21 billion acquisition of General Electric’s (GE’s) Healthcare Life Sciences business and five months later the division – renamed Cytiva – has laid out an aggressive growth strategy to deal with demand for its bioprocess equipment and services. “Cytiva is deploying a multi-pronged approach to expand our global manufacturing capacity,†Emmanuel Ligner,…

September 14, 2020