Seven Major Biotech Deals Signal a Strong Start to 2024

Jan 19, 2024 12:03 CST Updated 12:03

Johnson & Johnson

Medical Device R&D and Manufacturer

Source: Insight Database

The latest edition of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM) has successfully concluded. According to an article by the industry media BioSpace, seven partnership deals emerged during the JPM, marking a strong start for 2024.

The following will introduce these seven transaction events one by one.

Johnson & Johnson Acquires Ambrx for $2 Billion to Advance Next-Generation Antibody-Drug Conjugates

On January 8, Johnson & Johnson announced that it had reached a definitive agreement worth $2 billion to acquire Ambrx Biopharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a proprietary synthetic biology platform for designing and developing next-generation antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

Ambrx Biopharma Pipeline, from public data

Ambrx Biopharma's cancer candidate therapies include ARX517 – a Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA)-targeted Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), ARX788 – a HER2-targeted ADC for metastatic HER2+ breast cancer, and ARX305 – a CD70-targeted ADC for renal cell carcinoma. In addition, the company also has multiple preclinical candidates.

Margaret Yu, Ph.D., Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation's Prostate Cancer Disease Area, stated, "The median overall survival for mCRPC is less than two years, representing a significant unmet need. We see a unique opportunity to harness the potential of Ambrx's innovative ADC platform and leverage our deep understanding of prostate cancer to deliver targeted PSMA therapeutics, addressing the growing needs of more than 185,000 patients with metastatic castration-resistant disease today."

Merck & Co. Acquires Harpoon for $680 Million to Expand Oncology Portfolio

On January 8, Merck and Harpoon Therapeutics jointly announced that the two companies had reached a definitive agreement under which Merck will acquire Harpoon for $23.00 per share in cash through a subsidiary, with an equity value of approximately $680 million.

Harpoon has developed a series of novel T-cell engagers, which utilize the company's proprietary tri-specific T-cell activating construct (TriTAC) platform—a protein engineering technology designed to direct a patient’s own immune cells to kill tumor cells—and the ProTriTAC platform, which applies the prodrug concept to its TriTAC platform to create a therapeutic T-cell engager that is designed to remain inactive until it reaches the tumor.

Harpoon Therapeutics Pipeline, from the company's official website

Harpoon's lead candidate drug HPN328 is a T-cell engager targeting delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) – an inhibitory Notch ligand highly expressed in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and neuroendocrine tumors. In March 2022, the U.S. FDA granted HPN328 orphan drug designation for the treatment of SCLC.

HPN328 is currently being evaluated in a Phase I/II clinical trial to assess the indicators of HPN328 monotherapy in patients with advanced cancers associated with DLL3 expression. The study also evaluates the efficacy of HPN328 in combination with atezolizumab for SCLC patients. In October 2023, Harpoon announced positive interim tolerability and response data for HPN328 in certain SCLC and neuroendocrine tumor patients.

GSK Acquires Aiolos Bio for $1.4 Billion to Expand Respiratory Product Pipeline

On January 9, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Aiolos Bio announced that they had reached an agreement under which GSK will acquire the latter. GSK will pay $1 billion upfront and up to $400 million in certain success-based regulatory milestone payments. In addition, GSK will also be responsible for making success-based milestone payments and tiered royalties to Hengrui.

Aiolos Bio Pipeline, from the company's official website

Aiolos Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on addressing unmet therapeutic needs for patients with certain respiratory and inflammatory diseases. This acquisition provides GSK with Aiolos Bio’s AIO-001, a potential "best-in-class" long-acting anti-thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) monoclonal antibody, which is ready to enter Phase II clinical development for the treatment of adult asthma patients and has the potential for other indications, including chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. The rights to AIO-001 outside of Greater China were exclusively licensed by Hengrui Medicine to Aiolos Bio.

Novartis Partners with AI Drug Discovery Company for Over $1.2 Billion to Develop Small Molecule Therapies

On January 7, digital biology company Isomorphic Labs announced a strategic research collaboration with Novartis to discover small molecule therapies targeting three undisclosed targets. Isomorphic Labs received a $37.5 million upfront payment and will also obtain partial research funding from Novartis, with eligibility for up to $1.2 billion in performance-based milestone payments.

Isomorphic Labs is a subsidiary of Alphabet, launched in 2021 from DeepMind, which is also under Alphabet. Isomorphic Labs operates autonomously within Alphabet with its own dedicated resources and focuses on the application of artificial intelligence in drug discovery. The company is reimagining the entire drug discovery process from first principles through an AI-first approach, committed to building powerful new predictive and generative models of biological phenomena to forecast how drugs will work and design new molecules.

Building on the success of AlphaFold and in collaboration with GoogleDeepMind, Isomorphic Labs has made significant progress in developing the next generation of AlphaFold. This new version of AlphaFold extends beyond proteins to include small molecules and nucleic acid drugs. "Cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies like AlphaFold have the potential to transform the way we discover new medicines and accelerate our ability to deliver life-changing treatments to patients," said Dr. Fiona Marshall, President of Biomedical Research at Novartis.

Lilly Partners with AI Drug Discovery Company for Over $1.7 Billion to Develop Small Molecule Therapies

On January 7, digital biology company Isomorphic Labs announced a strategic research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company to develop small molecule therapies targeting multiple sites. Isomorphic Labs will receive $45 million in upfront cash and is eligible for up to $1.7 billion in performance-based milestone payments.

Novartis Acquires Calypso Biotech for $425 Million, Expanding Autoimmune Disease Pipeline

On January 8, Calypso Biotech announced that it had reached a definitive agreement with Novartis, under which Novartis will acquire the former. According to the agreement, Novartis will pay $250 million upfront and up to $175 million in development milestone payments.

Calypso Biotech was spun off from Merck Serono in March 2013, focusing on the research and development of monoclonal antibodies for a range of autoimmune indications, with expertise in IL-15 biology. IL-15 is a broad, untapped immune axis that controls barrier function and downstream immune cascades in many chronic autoimmune diseases.

Calypso Biotech Pipeline, from the company's official website

Calypso Biotech's lead candidate drug, CALY-002, is a potential "best in class" therapeutic antibody that binds to and neutralizes IL-15. This acquisition gives Novartis full rights to CALY-002. Novartis intends to further explore CALY-002 across various autoimmune indications. The candidate drug is currently being evaluated in a Phase Ib trial in patients with celiac disease and eosinophilic esophagitis.

Founded in less than 3 years! Bo Wang Pharmaceuticals licenses multiple RNAi therapies to Novartis for over $4 billion

On January 7, Argo Biopharma announced that it had entered into two exclusive license and collaboration agreements with Novartis for RNAi therapies. Argo Biopharma will receive an upfront payment of $185 million from Novartis and is eligible to receive potential option and milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on commercial sales. The total potential value of the two deals could reach up to $4.165 billion.

Under the first agreement, Bowang Pharmaceutical exclusively licensed the global development and commercialization rights of a Phase I clinical product for cardiovascular diseases to Novartis. Additionally, Novartis will obtain potential licensing options for up to two additional targets for compounds targeting cardiovascular diseases. Under the second agreement, Bowang Pharmaceutical exclusively licensed the development and commercialization rights outside Greater China for a Phase I/IIa clinical-stage project for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases to Novartis. These clinical-stage assets were all discovered and developed by Bowang Pharmaceutical using its RNAi technology platform.

Screenshot of some pipelines from Bowang Pharmaceutical, sourced from the company's official website

Bowang Pharmaceutical was founded in April 2021, focusing on the development of siRNA drugs. Its team has many years of professional experience in all aspects of RNAi drug development, including nucleic acid sequence design, chemical modification, GalNAc delivery technology, extrahepatic tissue-targeted delivery technology, oligonucleotide synthesis, and CMC. The company has established a complete nucleic acid drug development platform. Currently, Bowang Pharmaceutical has built a rich and differentiated product pipeline around cardiovascular diseases, rare diseases, viral infections, metabolic diseases, and central nervous system diseases.

At the beginning of 2024, in the biopharmaceutical industry, the news reports during the JMP conference triggered heated discussions in the industry about mergers and acquisitions between pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology firms. Looking ahead, we are full of anticipation as continuous technological advancements and evolving market demands will lead to closer collaboration between companies, more breakthrough discoveries, and innovative achievements that benefit patients.

References:

1、biospace

2. Official Websites of Various Companies

· END ·

--Featured Recommendations--