Deals, Development and Manufacturing

PhoreMost, a biopharma company based in the United Kingdom, and Boehringer Ingelheim have entered into a multi-project drug discovery collaboration agreement, it was revealed.

The companies plan to combine their preclinical candidates to develop small-molecule inhibitors against multiple drug targets.

Through the acquisition, Johnson & Johnson will gain access to Taris’ lead clinical-stage product, TAR-200.

The promise of new therapies is tempered by the need for affordability, safety, and ethics.

As a new decade has begun, this editorial reviews some of the biggest, brightest, and boldest happenings from the industry over the past 10 years.

The divestment of the pharma and food ingredients business is in line with Ferrer’s new strategy to focus on the core business of branded pharmaceuticals.

The acquisition expands Charles River’s scientific capabilities in cell therapy development.

Through the acquisition, Merck will gain access to ArQule’s lead investigational candidate, ARQ 531, a novel, oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor currently in a Phase II dose expansion study for the treatment of B-cell malignancies.

Through the collaboration, Charles River plans to expand its suite of authentic human cells by utilizing Bit Bio’s target discovery, validation, and screening services to further the development of therapies with a higher chance of success in patients.

Catalent recently completed the clinical production of Bridge’s opioid addiction development therapeutic product and investigational new drug, BT-219, which will be used with Catalent’s Zydis orally disintegrating tablet technology.

Life science and healthcare business accelerator, Start Codon, and membership organization, One Nucleus, have partnered up to support the life science ecosystem in the United Kingdom.

The acquisition boosts Sanofi’s pipeline of immuno-oncology product candidates with a lead candidate in development for treating solid-tumor-type cancers.

Under the restructuring, Sanofi will gain sole global rights to Kevzara (sarilumab) and sole ex-US rights to Praluent (alirocumab), while Regeneron will gain sole US rights to Praluent.

A drug discovery company based in the United Kingdom, Lunac Therapeutics, has been awarded funding worth £3.14 million (US$4.11 million) under Innovate UK’s Biomedical Catalyst program.

Catalent and Ethicann Pharmaceuticals have announced a partnership aimed at developing a new combination pharmaceutical-grade CBD and THC product to treat MS spasticity using Catalent’s orally disintegrating tablet technology.

BioMed X has announced the successful completion of its first joint research project in the fields of COPD and IPF that it had undertaken with Boehringer Ingelheim.

CPI has partnered with ImmunoBiology (ImmBio) for the development of a heat-stabilized formulation of a mutli-antigen vaccine candidate against Pneumococcal diseases.

Iontas has entered into a collaboration agreement with Adaptate Biotherapeutics for the generation and optimization of antibodies for novel immune-oncology targets.

GE Healthcare Life Sciences and Guangzhou Development District Investment Promotion Bureau have signed an agreement to jointly establish a training center for biopharmaceutical professionals.

Biopharma company, Zelluna Immunotherapy, and clinical stage biotech, Glycostem Therapeutics, have entered into a partnership focused on the development and manufacture of allogeneic T-cell receptor guided Natural Killer cell therapies for the treatment of cancer.

The agreement paves the way for GSK’s specialty HIV company, ViiV Healthcare, to develop a broadly neutralizing antibody, N6LS, for HIV treatment and prevention.

The companies have entered into a clinical and commercial agreement to use MaxCyte’s ExPERT platform to enable development of up to five of Vor’s engineered cell therapies.

Lonza and Cryoport have partnered up to strengthen Lonza’s ‘vein-to-vein’ delivery network by removing supply chain hurdles faced by developers of personalized therapeutics.

Beckman Coulter Life Sciences and IncellDx have announced a collaboration aimed at creating awareness for the oncology assays on the cytometry platform for European customers.

GE Healthcare Life Sciences has announced it will be working closely with Pharmadule Morimatsu to expand its KUBio “factory in a box” so that biopharma manufacturers will be able to quickly scale up vaccines, viral vector-based therapies, and other novel modalities.

Through a partnership with the Sobti family, the CDMO will expand is injectable dosage form capabilities.

The new service will assist pharmaceutical companies with quality control and analytical requirements.

The companies will work to discover and develop therapies for the treatment of liver-related cardio-metabolic diseases using Dicerna’s proprietary GalXC RNAi platform technology.

Alkermes plans to advance its investigational new drug-enabling capabilities for lead preclinical assets in the Rodin development candidate portfolio.

If successful, the acquisition will boost Recipharm’s global position in the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) market.