Merck & Co. has reached an agreement to acquire Tilos Therapeutics, a developer of monoclonal antibodies targeting the latent TGFβ complex. The deal will see biopharma firm Merck acquire private Massachusetts-based biotech Tilos Therapeutics for up to $773 million (€683 million), including an undisclosed upfront payment and milestones. Dean Li, senior vice president, discovery and translational medicine, Merck Research Laboratories, said in a statement the deal is evidence of the firm’s continued efforts to enhance its pipeline. “Tilos has developed…

Contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) 3P Biopharmaceuticals will scale-up the manufacture of Affibody’s candidate ABY-035 for psoriasis. Swedish biopharma firm Affibody has been working with 3P since 2017 and has now secured the CDMO to transfer and scale-up the process developed prior to execution of the first GMP manufacturing batches for its candidate ABY-035. 3P will also carry out process characterization and validation ahead of commercial manufacture. “Currently the collaboration is based on GMP manufacturing for Ph II clinical…

Eight years after inking a deal to provide facilities services across 22 sites, Danish firm ISS says Novartis is unlikely to extend its contract beyond December. In August 2012, Swiss pharma firm Novartis inked a deal with Danish facilities services provider ISS to provide integrated facilities services at 22 sites, including numerous production plants. The deal included the fulfilment of services including catering, property, cleaning, support and security at five sites in Switzerland, eleven sites in Germany, two in Austria,…

German services firm Evotec has jumped into the biologics development space through the acquisition of Just.Bio, a platform company working to reduce the cost of goods for proteins. Hamburg, Germany-based Evotec uses its expertise and technologies to help pharma firms discover and develop new small molecule therapies and names Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, CHDI, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi, Takeda, and UCB among its partners. Through the addition of Just.Bio for $90 million (€81 million) cash, Evotec has increased its…