4 U.S. pharmaceutical R&D transactions worth watching

1. Eli Lilly and Asahi Kasei

A few days ago, Eli Lilly signed a license agreement with Asahi Kasei Pharmaceuticals in Tokyo, Japan, and Eli Lilly obtained the exclusive rights of AK1780. The drug is an oral P2X7 receptor antagonist, and recently completed a phase I dose study of the drug. The P2X7 receptor is involved in inflammation of the nerves that drive chronic pain.

According to the terms of the transaction, Eli Lilly will be responsible for the global development and regulatory activities of AK1780 in the future. Eli Lilly paid US$20 million to Asahi Kasei Pharmaceuticals in advance, and Asahi Kasei is also eligible for development and regulatory milestone payments of up to US$210 million. Asahi Kasei will reserve the right to promote the drug in Japan and Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. If the AK1780 is finally listed, Asahi Kesei will also be eligible for sales milestones and royalties of up to $180 million. Mark Mintun, vice president of pain and neurodegeneration research at Eli Lilly, said, “Lilly is committed to developing novel drugs to alleviate the suffering of patients suffering from various pain conditions. We are very pleased to obtain the AK1780 license from Asahi Kasei and look forward to it. Further develop AK1780 as a potential therapy for neuroinflammatory pain conditions."

2. Merck and Artiva Biotherapeutics

San Diego-based Artiva Biotherapeutics announced an exclusive global cooperation and licensing agreement with Merck. The two companies will use Artiva's off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cell manufacturing platform and its proprietary CAR-NK technology to jointly develop new chimeras for solid tumor-related antigens Antigen receptor CAR-NK cell therapy. First of all, the cooperation will include two CAR-NK procedures, and there may be a third product cooperation.

Merck will pay Artiva an advance payment of US$30 million for the research and development of the first two projects. If Merck chooses to continue with the third project, Merck will also pay Artiva an additional US$15 million. Artiva will pay for the development and commercial milestones of each project, up to $612 million, and Merck will also increase research funding for each project. Artiva Chief Operating Officer Peter Flynn said, “Our NK platform has been developed as an actual product. The exclusive cooperation between Artiva and Merck will further verify the effectiveness of the platform. Artiva and Merck will work together to provide all patients who may benefit Cell therapy."

3. NeuBase and Vera

Pittsburgh-based NeuBase Therapeutics genetic medicine company announced that it has signed a cooperation agreement to conditionally obtain infrastructure, experimental projects and intellectual property rights for several peptide nucleic acid (PNA) scaffolds from Vera Therapeutics (formerly known as TruCode gene repair) . Vera is headquartered in South San Francisco. On January 19, the company announced the launch of a $80 million Series C financing led by Abingworth LLP. Investors included Sofinnova Investment, Longitude Capital, Fidelity Management Consulting, Surveyor Capital, Octagon Capital, and Kliner Perkins. , GV and Alexandria Venture Capital joined together.

Vera's main clinical drug candidate is atacicept, a new type of B cell and plasma cell inhibitor for patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN). The company's PinTai technology has shown its ability to solve diseases in genetic models of multiple disease indications. Dietrich A. Stephan, CEO of NeuBase, said, "Through this acquisition, we have enhanced the capabilities of the PATrOL platform, and further improved the unique ability to directly participate and correct damaged genes with unique precision, and help solve various human diseases. The root cause. The assets obtained in cooperation with Vera have developed and improved the functions of the PATrOL platform, bringing the rapidly growing gene medicine industry to a more influential focus. NeuBase is committed to promoting our product line and drug candidates into the clinic, And make full use of the potential of PNA technology to continue to create value for shareholders, especially for patients."

4. Bio-Techne and Changzhou Eminence

Recently, Bio-Techne, located in Minneapolis, announced an initial minority equity investment in China's Changzhou Amynance Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Amines plans to use the financing to expand its manufacturing capabilities and improve the service capabilities of its GMP manufacturing facilities. Amines, headquartered in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China, was established in 2016 and initially focused on manufacturing and selling first-class culture media to life science companies, including Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and other serum-free media products and services. The company is currently completing and expanding the scale of its GMP production facility, which is planned to be completed before the end of this year.

Chuck Kumeth, President and CEO of Bio-Techne, said, “With protein analysis instruments and expanding GMP, Bio-Techne continues to expand its grasp of products and tools that are critical to bioprocessing. Investment can not only enable Bio-Techne to provide Other products and services support the key needs of the fast-growing Chinese biopharmaceutical industry, and will also adapt to China’s existing high-growth product portfolio. Bio-Techne looks forward to working with the Changzhou Eminence team."