Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly EuroBiotech Report. We start this week in Switzerland, where the biotech spawned in Johnson & Johnson’s takeover of Actelion made its first moves as a standalone business. Bavarian Nordic pushed back the readout from its cancer vaccine trial again. Neil Woodford committed cash to the Dementia Discovery Fund. Cell Medica bought Catapult Therapy TCR for its clinical-phase WT1-TCR cell therapy. ElexoPharm licensed aldosterone synthase inhibitors to Angion Biomedica. And more—Nick Taylor
1. Idorsia spins out of Johnson & Johnson-Actelion with $1B and multidrug pipeline
Idorsia has spun out of Actelion after Johnson & Johnson wrapped up its $30 billion takeover of the Swiss biotech. The new company starts life with $1 billion in cash, multiple clinical-phase drugs and a deal with J&J, strengths that prompted traders to drive up its share price by 30% in its first hours on the Swiss stock exchange.
2. Bavarian Nordic delays phase 3 cancer vaccine data again, pushing back Bristol-Myers opt-in decision date
Bavarian Nordic has again delayed the release of data from a phase 3 trial of Prostvac. Top-line data on the Bristol-Myers Squibb-partnered prostate cancer vaccine are now due to drop in the fourth quarter, with the delayed third interim analysis penciled in for September.
3. Woodford invests in Big Pharma-backed dementia fund
Neil Woodford has invested in the Big Pharma-backed Dementia Discovery Fund. The investment gives the DDF its first financial investor and as much as £15 million ($19 million) more to funnel into the discovery and development of drugs to treat Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
4. Cell Medica buys clinical-phase WT1-TCR cell therapy
Cell Medica has bought Catapult Therapy TCR for its clinical-phase WT1 T-cell receptor (TCR) cell therapy. Catapult Therapy TCR developed the therapy as a treatment for blood cancers, but Cell Medica thinks it can retool it to take out solid tumors
5. Seven years after Merck deal, ElexoPharm offloads aldosterone synthase inhibitors to Angion
ElexoPharm has licensed inhibitors of the aldosterone synthase enzyme to Angion Biomedica. The exclusive pact comes seven years after ElexoPharm struck a deal granting Merck rights to drugs against the same target.
And more articles of note>>