Pharmafocus
Pharmaceutical Industry news, analysis and insights
Gilead sciences has announced the acquisition of all outstanding shares of XinThera, a privately owned biotech company based in San Diego, US. This acquisition aims to strengthen Gilead’s clinical development pipeline through the addition of XinThera’s oncology and inflammation assets.
UK-based GSK has announced its plans to acquire Bellus Health, a Canadian late-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on treatments for refractory chronic cough (RCC). The acquisition will give GSK access to Camlipixant, Bellus’ first-in-class treatment for RCC.
Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi) has announced that it had entered into a ‘plan of merger’ with CTI Biopharma Corp (CTI), a biopharmaceutical company focused on blood-related cancers and rare diseases, by means of a tender offer valued at $1.7bn.
BioNTech and OncoC4 have entered a strategic collaboration for the co-development and commercialisation of a novel checkpoint antibody for multiple solid tumour indications. BioNTech will receive an exclusive worldwide license from oncoc4 for its anti-ctla-4 monoclonal antibody candidate, onc-392.
Pharma giant Pfizer has signed a definitive merger agreement valued at $43bn to buy biotech firm Seagen. US-based Seagen discovers, develops and commercialises cancer medicines through pioneering antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) technology. It currently has four approved medicines in its portfolio, including three ADCs: adcetris (brentuximab vedotin) for lymphoma; padcev (enfortumab vedotin) for bladder cancers; and tivdak (tisotumab vedotin) for cervical cancer.