Tuesday, January 11, 2022 Daily Archives

Pfizer bolsters mRNA through deals with Acuitas, Codex, and Beam

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Pfizer has signaled its intention of taking mRNA beyond COVID-19 through a triad of deals announced on the first day of JP Morgan’s annual healthcare conference. Pfizer has already seen major messenger RNA (mRNA) success with BioNTech and their respective COVID-19 vaccine, BNT162b2 (Comirnaty). Now, the firm has announced its plans at JP Morgan’s healthcare conference to become an mRNA powerhouse through a triumvirate of deals. The deals, described below, see Pfizer team up with Acuitas Therapeutics, Codex DNA, and…

January 11, 2022

2022 begins with proliferation of advanced therapy CDMO investments

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The Center for Breakthrough Medicines receives $350 million, Forge Biologics closes $80 million in additional funding, Piramal invests in Yapan, and GHO Capital invests in RoslinCT. Welcome to our CGT CDMO round-up. Eagle-eyed readers will remember South Korean investment firm SK Inc pledged to invest in Pennsylvania-based company the Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM) back in November. Now the cell and gene contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) has revealed SK’s involvement includes $350 million in equity financing aimed at…

January 11, 2022

WACKER’s plug-and-play technology serves growing pDNA demand for cell and gene therapy

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The global demand for nucleic acid-based gene therapies, novel vaccines and innovative therapeutic agents, including messenger RNA (mRNA) and viral vectors, is extremely high and projected to increase in the future. Plasmid DNA (pDNA) is the basis for all of these advanced therapies. Plasmid DNA can be used either directly for vaccines and gene therapies, or as starting material, e.g., to manufacture mRNA. The CDMO market for pDNA is expected to grow by 19 percent by 2025 (Global Viral Vector…

January 11, 2022

Cell and gene therapy exits from Sanofi and AvroBio

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Sanofi will focus its cell therapy strategy on allogeneic products, terminating its partnership with Sangamo. Meanwhile, disappointing trial results have driven AvroBio to abandon its lead gene therapy candidate for Fabry disease. The cell and gene therapy space continues to evolve but two announcements demonstrate the vicissitudes that linger over this burgeoning sector. Firstly, French Pharma giant Sanofi has ended a long-term hemoglobinopathies partnership with genomics firm Sangamo Therapeutics. “In its notice to Sangamo, Sanofi indicated that its termination relates…

January 11, 2022

Lithuania’s talent pool ‘ready and waiting’ to service biopharma needs, says development agency

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Biopharma companies around the world have reported concerns regarding talent shortages across the industry, but Invest Lithuania says it has a large talent pool ready and waiting. There is a general consensus among professionals that the amount of talent coming through is not reflective of the huge investment in capacity being seen across the Life Sciences industry. Companies such as Lonza, SwedenBIO, and pharma recruitment firm Lead Candidate have expressed their talent shortage concerns at different points last year. However,…

January 11, 2022