Deal-Making Archives - Page 42 of 59 - BioProcess InternationalBioProcess International

Ohr pushes for oligonucleotide merger with NeuBase

Ohr Pharmaceutical has urged its shareholders to vote for a merger with Neubase Therapeutics at a special meeting this week, creating an entity focused on RNA gene silencing. The reverse merger, first announced in January, would create a public company focused on advancing NeuBase’s peptide-nucleic acid (PNA) antisense oligonucleotide (PATrOL) technology platform for the development of therapies to address severe diseases caused by genetic mutations, including Huntington’s disease and myotonic dystrophy. However, the deal is at risk of not going…

Lonza takes parenteral control through Novartis plant buy and contract

by Dan Stanton

CDMO Lonza has acquired a fill & finish facility in Switzerland from big pharma firm Novartis it says boosts its end-to-end offering. The deal sees contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Lonza take over the reins at fellow Swiss firm Novartis’ sterile, multi-product drug product facility in Stein. Lonza will retain operational and management staff at the site and manufacture clinical drug product for Novartis. Financial details have not been disclosed. “The facility can handle liquid and lyophilized dosage forms…

Amicus contracts Thermo Fisher to make Batten disease gene therapy

by BPI Staff

Brammer Bio, now part of Thermo Fisher, will provide clinical and commercial manufacturing capabilities for gene therapy developer Amicus Therapeutics. Under terms of the deal, Amicus has teamed with Thermo Fisher to support its intrathecal AAV Batten disease gene therapy programs. The agreement includes production of Amicus’ clinical candidates CLN6 and CLN3, with production set to be transferred to Thermo Fisher’s manufacturing sites in Alachua, Florida, and Cambridge, Massachusetts The contract is “a significant next step in fulfilling our manufacturing…

AbbVie: Lack of Botox biosimilars a factor in $63bn Allergan buy

by Dan Stanton

AbbVie, a firm all too familiar with biosimilar threats, says the low risk of Botox competition was a factor in its decision to acquire Allergan. The agreed $63 billion (€55 billion) megamerger with Allergan strengthens AbbVie’s pharma assets and provides the firm with a healthy growth platform, Bioprocess Insider reported last week. Allergan’s lead product neurotoxic protein Botox (botulinum toxin) brought in $3.6 billion in sales revenue in 2018 and will add immediate add scale to AbbVie in neuroscience, as…

$63bn Allergan deal: ‘Humira is buying the assets that will replace it’

by Dan Stanton

The acquisition of Allergan will bring AbbVie’s growth platform to critical mass as revenues from lead biologic Humira (adalimumab) feel the heat from biosimilar competition. What is expected to become the second largest megamerger in the pharma space was announced yesterday, with AbbVie entering into a $63 billion (€55 billion) agreement to buy Allergan. (The largest deal is Bristol-Myers Squibb’s proposed $74 billion megamerger with Celgene, announced in January.) The merger will bring AbbVie numerous assets in the neuroscience, medical…

Eli Lilly on R&D: Two thirds internal, one third external

by Dan Stanton

CFO Josh Smiley says Eli Lilly is looking to source around a third of its pipeline from outside its organization. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs 40th Annual Global Healthcare Conference, Josh Smiley, chief financial officer at Eli Lilly, said his firm’s pipeline is comprised of around two thirds internal molecules and one third external. “When we look historically, we’ve done a good job in late phase of partnering and bringing in assets in earlier phases of development, getting to about…

Biotech money: Global funding down despite spate of IPOs

by BPI Staff

A decline in venture capital (VC) funding has been offset by a flood of IPOs with growth coming from non-US biotechs, according to a Jefferies analyst. For April and May 2019, biotech funding has declined 6.5% year-on-year to $9.3 billion (€8.3 billion) according to Jefferies analyst David Windley. This, he said in a note, is due to a 46% drop in VC funding as the private market continues to be less kind to biotech over the past few periods. “Both…

Celgene pays BeiGene $150m as it hands back anti-PD-1 rights

by Dan Stanton

Ahead of its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene has agreed to hand back the development and commercialization rights of solid tumor candidate tislelizumab to Chinese drugmaker BeiGene. In August 2017, BeiGene inked a deal to acquire Celgene’s commercial operations and portfolio assets in China while handing over the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize its investigational anti-PD1 antibody, BGB-A317 (tislelizumab) for solid tumors outside of the region. But in a report filed with the SEC yesterday, BeiGene said the two…

Alpine inks iPSCs vision lost therapy deal with Allele

by Dan Stanton

In collaboration with Alpine BioTherapeutics Corporation, Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals will make therapies for retinal diseases based on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) The deal, financials of which have not been divulged, sees the two firms enter into a research agreement for developing iPSC-derived cell therapy for treating diseases including blindness caused by Retinitis Pigmentosa, Stargardt disease, and dry AMD. Alpine, which has a patented stem cell differentiation technique used to generate human retinal stem cells from pluripotent stem cells,…

Amgen: ‘We’ve shaved 3 years off development but can do better’

by Dan Stanton

Amgen says it hopes to rapidly develop new medicines from a collaboration with Intermountain Health as its EVP of R&D discusses changing timelines. Wholly-owned Amgen subsidiary deCODE genetics will have access to the genomes of 500,000 Utah-based participants from a study carried out by not-for-profit healthcare provider Intermountain Healthcare. Amgen hopes to use this data to uncover new insights into specific diseases and develop new medicines that reach the right disease targets. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs 40th Annual Global…