Business & Development

Novartis Enters a $100 Million Gene Therapy Deal with Voyager

Swiss drugmaker Novartis will pay biotech company Voyager about $100 million in cash up front, including $20 million in stock, in a deal worth as much as $1.2 billion. In return, Novartis will receive worldwide rights for experimental gene therapy for Huntington’s disease and a license to use the biotech’s gene therapy delivery tools to develop a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA.

Source: BioPharma Dive

$60 million agreement signed to combat familial neurological diseases

Cure Genetics and Frametact Limited, a biotechnology company specializing in the research and development of drugs for neurological diseases, have signed a licensing and collaborative development agreement for a gene therapy capable of combating familial neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease. The development will be carried out through the VELP platform, patented by Cure Genetics, for which they will receive an initial payment of $60 million, in addition to royalties once the product is launched on the market.

Source: BioSpace.com

For $10 billion, AbbVie buys pharmaceutical company ImmunoGen

With a $10.1 billion investment, AbbVie acquires ImmunoGen due to its promising targeted cancer therapies. The company’s value tripled in 2023 because of its drug Elahere, which helped prolong the lives of ovarian cancer patients in a late-stage trial. The deal boosts its plans to enter the cancer drug market as its best-selling product, Humira, a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, faces fierce competition in the United States. This transaction is expected to close in mid-2024.

Source: El Economista

Bristol-Myers Squibb to pay $800 million advance to Chinese drugmaker

Bristol Myers Squibb will pay $800 million upfront and up to $8.4 billion to a unit of drugmaker Sichuan Biokin to develop and commercialize one of its cancer treatments outside China. According to the developers, the drug has shown promise against a variety of solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer, cancer, and breast cancer. The treatment is currently in early-stage clinical trials.

Source: MarketScreener

Vertex/CRISPR Values Sickle Cell Gene Therapy at $2.2 Million

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and its partner CRISPR Therapeutics announced that their gene therapy for sickle cell anemia, Casgevy, would be available at a list price of $2.2 million in the United States. The biotechnology company Bluebird Bio mentioned that it has set a list price of 3.1 million dollars for its treatment, Lyfgenia, for this condition. The U.S. health regulator approved both therapies at the end of 2023.

Source: Reuters

Pfizer to buy Seagen for $43 billion for its cancer drugs

Pfizer agreed to pay $43 billion in a successful deal to acquire Seagen, a biotech company pioneering a new class of tumor-killing drug. The acquisition is the greatest Pfizer has attempted since buying Wyeth in 2009 and is the largest in the pharmaceutical industry by value since AbbVie’s $63 billion purchase of Allergan in 2019. The acquisition of Seagen gives Pfizer control of the best-selling lymphoma drug, Adcetris, and a portfolio of cancer treatments that has generated three new drug approvals over the past three years.

Source: BioPharma Dive

Bristol Myers to acquire brain drug developer Karuna for $14 billion

Bristol Myers Squibb has agreed to acquire Karuna Therapeutics for $14 billion, betting that the biotech company’s experimental schizophrenia drug will become one of the bestselling drugs. The acquisition gives Bristol Myers a well-known drug called “KarXT,” which is currently being reviewed by the FDA as a potential treatment for schizophrenia. The drug is a newer type of medication that doesn’t work like the treatments available for schizophrenia. It has already been successful in three mid- and late-stage tests and, if approved by regulators, could launch by the end of 2024.

Source: Forbes Mexico

The Next Great Abyss of Pharmaceutical Patents; Key Stats

By 2030, patents on nearly 200 drugs will expire, and almost all major pharmaceutical companies will be affected. Essential medicines like Merck & Co.’s Keytruda, Regeneron’s Eylea, J&J’s Stellara, Eli Lilly’s Trulicity, and a trio of Bristol Myers Squibb blockbusters (Opdivo, Eliquis, and Revlimid) will lose exclusivity to their patents by the end of the decade. According to an analysis by Evaluate Pharma, the total value of the industry’s at-risk sales will rise this year to $44.4 billion, fall next year, and grow steadily again each year until peaking in 2029.

Source: Pharma Voice