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Ref take over of Harpoon:
MSD’s 2023 run of pipeline-building deals looks like it could continue into this year, with reports already emerging that the company is in talks to buy Harpoon Therapeutics and its T cell engager programmes.
The rumour, first reported by Bloomberg, puts a price tag of around $700 million on Harpoon, which had a market cap of around $180 million based on its last closing share price of just over $10. The stock has however rocketed to more than $21 in pre-market trading on the back of the report.
NANJING, China, Jan. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- GenScript Biotech, a global leader in life science research and manufacturing services, along with its subsidiaries GenScript ProBio and Legend Biotech, will be attending the 42nd JPM Healthcare Conference held in San Francisco, California, USA, from January 8 to 11, 2024. This initiative aims to showcase GenScript's exceptional strength and development potential in the biotech sector, seeking to establish deeper interactions and connections with industry partners and investors, explore future collaboration opportunities, and further advance innovation and development in the healthcare sector.
Executives from GenScript Biotech, GenScript ProBio, and Legend Biotech will each deliver speeches during the event as per the schedule below.
Company
Speaker
Speech Time
Location
GenScript
Biotech
Sherry Shao
Rotating CEO of
GenScript Biotech
January 9,
9:00 AM PST
Marriott Marquis
Ballroom C1/C2
Legend
Biotech
Ying Huang
CEO of Legend
Biotech
January 9,
2:15 PM PST
The Westin St. Francis
California East
GenScript
ProBio
Li Chen
CEO of GenScript
ProBio
January 10,
9:30 AM PST
Marriott Marquis
Updated 22/12
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/jj-legends-carvykti-slapped-fda-boxed-warning-secondary-cancer-risk
In a blow to CAR-T therapies, the FDA is investigating a “serious risk” of patients developing new cancers after treatment with these highly efficacious oncology drugs.
"The FDA unveiled the probe Tuesday. The agency said it has received reports of T-cell malignancies, including CAR-positive lymphoma, among patients who received BCMA- or CD19-directed CAR-T cell immunotherapies."
Following this report FDA have upgraded the warning to a Black Box to all the currently approved CAR-T therapies, the most serious safety related warning!
As per Avacta's presentation at the Science day early 2023, Avacta was highlighting Precision Chemotherapy vs CAR-T therapy and its tremendous potential.
Our new Chief Business Officer will certainly be in demand at the upcoming JPM conference, not to mention AACR in April along with the Company.
At current price one is paying for AVA6000 and basically getting the rest of Avacta for free.
The majors will be all over Avacta, not to mention the potential interest from Eli Lilly having now acquired Point Biopharma!
AACR Annual Meeting 2024: Clinical Trials and Late-Breaking Abstracts
April 5-10, 2024 • San Diego Convention Center • San Diego, CA
Don’t miss the chance to be considered for one of the numerous oral presentation opportunities available for clinical trials at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024. Clinical trial abstract submissions are due by January 8. Placeholder abstracts are only permitted for clinical trials that do not have final data available by January 8. Placeholder abstracts must be submitted by January 8, and final data are due by February 6.
Late-breaking abstracts detailing highly significant and timely findings in any area of cancer research that were not available at the time of the regular abstract deadline will be considered for presentation at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024. Only those abstracts that are dee
Lilly will be talking to Avacta next.
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced the successful completion of its acquisition of POINT Biopharma Global Inc. (NASDAQ: PNT), a radiopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of clinical and preclinical-stage radioligand therapies in development for the treatment of cancer.
"Next generation radioligand therapies hold great promise for delivering meaningful advances against a range of cancers and we are excited to enter this space through the addition of POINT," said Jacob Van Naarden, executive vice president and president, Loxo@Lilly. "We welcome POINT colleagues to Lilly and look forward to working together to build on their work as we create this new capability within Lilly. In time, I hope we can bring several new radioligand therapies to patients with cancer and improve their outcomes."
RayzeBio shares nearly doubled in premarket trading Tuesday after the clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical therapeutics company agreed to be acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb at a rich premium.
Bristol Myers will pay $62.50 a share for RayzeBio, a 104% premium to Friday's closing price of $30.57.
The deal carries an equity value of around $4.1 billion and a total value of $3.6 billion net of RayzeBio's cash on hand.
RayzeBio shares were up 99% to $60.90 in premarket.
And ..
Gracell Biotechnologies Inc. (“Gracell” or the “Company”, NASDAQ: GRCL), a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative cell therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by AstraZeneca.
The proposed acquisition will enrich AstraZeneca’s growing pipeline of cell therapies with GC012F, a novel, clinical-stage FasTCAR-enabled BCMA and CD19 dual-targeting autologous chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy, a potential new treatment for multiple myeloma, as well as other haematologic malignancies and autoimmune diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Autologous CAR-T is a type of cell therapy created by reprogramming a patient’s immune T cells to target disease-causing cells, and the manufacturing process for this type of treatment is complex and time-consuming. Gracell’s FasTCAR next-day manufacturing platform significantly shortens manufacturing time, enhances T cell fitness and will potentially improve the effectiveness of autologous CAR-T treatment in patients. Future applications of this technology may also include rare diseases.
Dr. William Cao, founder, Chairman and CEO, Gracell said: “We look forward to working with AstraZeneca to accelerate our shared goal of bringing transformative cell therapies to more patients living with debilitating diseases. By combining our expertise and resources, we can unlock new ways to harness the Gracell’s FasTCAR manufacturing platform, which we believe has the potential to optimise the therapeutic profile of engineered T cells, to pioneer the next generation of autologous cell therapies.”
Susan Galbraith, Executive Vice President, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, said: “The proposed acquisition of Gracell will complement AstraZeneca’s existing capabilities and previous investments in cell therapy, where we have established our presence in CAR-T and T-cell receptor therapies (TCR-Ts) in solid tumours. GC012F will accelerate our cell therapy strategy in haematology, with the opportunity to bring a potential best-in-class treatment to patients living with blood cancers using a differentiated manufacturing process, as well as exploring the potential for cell therapy to reset the immune response in autoimmune diseases.”
More M&A in the sector!
Bristol Myers Squib (BMY.N) has reached a deal to buy Karuna Therapeutics (KRTX.O)for $14 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Under the terms of the deal, Bristol would pay $330 a share in cash for Karuna and its experimental schizophrenia drug, which is now up for U.S. government approval, according to the report.
The offer price represents a 53.4% premium to Karuna's last closing price of $215.19.