The Week In Biopharma, May 16 – 20
Contract Research (CROs)
- Pfizer teams up with Headlands Research to launch trial sites in more diverse areas (USA)
- Ampersand-backed Alliance Pharma to acquire LGC’s Drug Development Solutions Business (“DDS”) and welcomes KKR as joint shareholder (UK)
- Sparta Science and Munich Re North America Life Partner to Improve Employee Wellness by Reducing Risk of Musculoskeletal Injury (USA/Germany)
- Elicio Therapeutics Enters Clinical Supply Agreement with Regeneron (USA)
Contract Development and Manufacturing (CDMO)
- Piramal Pharma Solutions New API Plant in Canada Now Online (India)
- Apiary Medical, Inc. Acquires Manus Medical LLC (USA)
- Align Technology and Asana Announce Strategic Partnership to Offer Asana Smiles™ for Align, a New Work Management Solution to Invisalign Trained Doctors in the (USA)
- Catalent Invests $175M to Expand Mfg. Capabilities at Winchester, KY (USA)
- Sartorius Expands Manufacturing Site in (Tunisia)
- AGC Biologics adds new viral vector suspension capabilities at US cell & gene facility (USA)
- FDA clears NeuroMetrix’s wearable neuromodulator as first non-drug fibromyalgia treatment (USA)
- Leica Biosystems New Advanced Staining Solution Transcends Expectations with Speed, Quality and Diagnostic Productivity (Germany)
- Syringe maker ApiJect reels in $111M in private investment round (USA)
- Amid a push to bulk up in Latin America, Procaps buys Mexican drugmaker Grupo Somar (Luxembourg)
- Novartis sells UK plant after delay, costing 212 workers their jobs (UK)
- CND Life Sciences Awarded NIH SBIR Grant to Study Novel Skin Biopsy Test for Dementias (USA)
- OriCiro Genomics expand into Boston, Open new office in North America (Japan)
- Aptar Pharma Launches HeroTracker Sense (USA)
- AffyXell Expands Manufacturing Partnership with GenScript ProBio (South Korea/USA)
- Societal CDMO Unveils New Supply Chain Preparedness Service (USA)
- ABL and Odimma Therapeutics Join Forces in Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy (France)
- Sernova taps Evotec’s insulin-producing cells to fill its pouch implant for diabetes (Canada/Germany)
- Limaca Medical and HekaBio Announce Japan Partnership (Israel/Japan)
- Tethis launches See.d®, the first fully automated, standardized pre-analytical platform for comprehensive liquid biopsy testing (Italy)
- RadNet scores 2 FDA clearances for AI programs in breast, prostate cancers (USA)
Biopharma
- FDA Approves First Treatment for Eosinophilic Esophagitis, a Chronic Immune Disorder (France/USA)
- Death triggers FDA hold on Foghorn blood cancer clinical trial, shrouding timing of data drop (USA)
- Bayer pulls plug on $670M CAR-T cell therapy pact with Atara in wake of patient death (USA)
- Tallac Therapeutics Announces FDA Clearance of Investigational New Drug (IND) Application for TAC-001, a First-in-Class Toll-like Receptor 9 (TLR9) Agonist Antibody Conjugate for Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors (USA)
- Atara’s is the latest setback for a troubled field (USA)
- Pfizer and its Sidekick snare a new approval (Iceland/USA)
- Cortexyme Successfully Completes Acquisition of Novosteo (USA)
- BioMoti Partners with Pharma Company to Develop Ovarian Cancer Treatment (UK)
- Sartorius continues global capacity expansion with opening of extended plant in Tunisia (Germany)
- Inceptor Bio Announces $37 Million Series A Financing to Develop Cell Therapies for Difficult-to-Treat Cancers (USA)
- Myeloid Therapeutics Enters Into Agreement with Acuitas Therapeutics for Lipid Nanoparticle (LNP) System, Enabling the First-Ever Delivery of mRNA-Encoded CARs Directly to Humans (USA/Canada)
- Enanta fails its first respiratory syncytial virus test (USA)
- DelSiTech and Anticancer Bioscience Announce a Collaboration Agreement for the Development of Long-acting Therapies in Oncology (Finland/China)
- Laekna Therapeutics Raises $61 Million in Series D financing (China)
- J&J-backed Locus closes $35M financing to push CRISPR-based antibacterial drug into phase 2/3 (USA)
- Applied Molecular Transport’s co-founder exits along with 40% of staff as early pipeline activity paused (USA)
- Grand Opening of Kodiak Sciences’ Bioconjugation Facility (USA)
- Labcorp’s combo COVID, flu, RSV test nabs first green light for direct-to-consumer sales by FDA (USA)
- Scholar Rock in a hard place as biotech lays off 25% of staff, narrows pipeline and loses CMO (USA)
- Vyriad, Inc. Raises $29.5M in Series B Funding Led by Renowned Genetics Entrepreneur (USA)
- Remix Therapeutics Closes $70 Million Series B Financing (USA)
- Aiming to be biggest biotech in Boston, Vertex plots 500-person cell, gene therapy R&D center (USA)
- Bill Gates Helps Open New Inventprise Vaccine Manufacturing Facility in Seattle Area (USA)
- DiNAQOR Opens DiNAMIQS Subsidiary to Partner with Gene Therapy Companies Bringing New Treatments to Patients (Switzerland)
- AbbVie and Cugene Announce Collaboration in Autoimmune Diseases (USA)
- Shionogi & Co., Ltd. and F2G Ltd., Enter Strategic Collaboration to Develop and Commercialize the New Antifungal Agent Olorofim in Europe and Asia (Japan/UK)
- To TIGIT or not to TIGIT? Roche’s latest trial flop casts shadow on Big Pharma’s $6B bet (Switzerland)
- Kriya cashes in $270M series C to further finance all-in-one gene therapy biz (USA)
- Agios to cut jobs as it moves away from exploratory research (USA)
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Obviohealth’s new AI-based tools aim to take subjectivity out of pediatric trials (Singapore)
- PostEra spearheads AI-driven drug discovery collaboration to develop antiviral therapeutics with initial $68M in NIH funding (USA)
- FDA smiles on 2nd cavity-spotting AI in a month with clearance for Overjet’s tech (USA)
- Drug-discovery pioneer Verseon delivers breakthrough once predicted by Steve Jobs (USA)
