Pharma Investment Roundup 21-Jan-2022

Champions Oncology partners with Fannin Innovation for Drug Conjugates

20 Jan 2022

Champions Oncology, a global biotech firm focused on AI-driven drug discovery, announced a new collaboration with Fannin Innovation Studio for the development of Raptamer Drug Conjugates (RDCs). RDCs promise to engage tumor-specific targets to deliver toxic payloads to tumors, without delivering any off-site effects on healthy tissues. The collaboration will initiate a single program for a target identified in multiple cancers, including Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, head and neck cancer and other solid tumors. Both partners will maintain equal ownership of any therapeutics that are discovered, with a joint venture expected to arise after milestones are achieved. The two parties hope that combining Champions’ AI and multiomic expertise with Fannin’s Raptamer technology will enable them to accelerate their research and discovery efforts, delivering selective and high-affinity ligands for tumor targeting.

Eleusis, a leader in psychedelics, to merge with SPAC

20 Jan 2022

British psychedelic-driven drug firm, Eleusis, is set to merge with Silver Spike Acquisition Corp. II which will see Eleusis become a publicly traded company. Eleusis is a leader in innovating the transformation of psychedelic drugs to medicines, with their lead drug candidate entering Phase I trials for the treatment of depression. ELE-Psilo, inspired from oral psilocybin, was designed by Eleusis for the delivery of psilocin (the active substance in psilocybin) intravenously – with the aim of reducing the long treatment and effect hours observed in psilocybin, making treatment more manageable. The substance shows potential in managing treatment-resistant depression, with the space of psychedelics gaining increasing traction in recent years.

Bruker expands omics business with Prolab Instruments purchase

19 Jan 2022

Bruker announced plans to augment its multiomics solutions with the acquisition of Prolab Instruments. Prolab is a Swiss firm specializing in low-flow, high-precision liquid chromatography technology. Their portfolio is centered around micro and nano-UHPLC pump technology, granting them significant expertise in low-flow systems. Prolab founder and CEO, Werner Doebelin expressed hope in a forward-looking statement regarding the accelerated pace of innovation that his team will be afforded after becoming part of Bruker:

“Being part of Bruker allows us to increase the pace of product innovation, and we are looking forward to bringing our Mobile Injection Unit Technology to market to further improve performance and robustness in key applications, like single cell proteomics and lipidomics”

UCB to acquire Zogenix

19 Jan 2022

UCB announced its plans to purchase Zogenix, a firm with a global focus on treating rare disease. The transaction is valued at $1.9b, and will add Fintepla (fenfluramine), an orphan medicine for Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS), to UCB’s portfolio. The product has already been approved, by the FDA and EMA, for seizures associated with Dravet syndrome – with UCB indicating that it will pursue avenues to research its potential for other diseases as well. The move will not only expand UCB’s long-term epilepsy pipeline, but will also bring with it significant regulatory expertise in pursuing orphan drug treatments – which will accelerate future developments in the rare disease space by the company. 

GSK extends successful partnership with 23andMe

18 Jan 2022

23andMe, a well known personal genomics and biotechnology company, announced the extension of its partnership with GlaxoSmithKline for a fifth year. The partnership will continue its focus on the discovery and validation of new drug targets using 23andMe’s proprietary genetic and health survey database. The move will see 23andMe receive $50m upfront, as well as a royalty option for its immuno-oncology antibody collaboration program with GSK which targets CD96. The collaboration has been particularly fruitful, with over 40 validated drug discovery programs in the GSK portfolio initiated through the partnership. This highlights the value of the unique model proposition offered by 23andMe, with over 80% of its customers consenting to their data being used for research. Kenneth Hillan, Head of Therapeutics at 23andMe, stated his firm belief in the partnership in a forward-looking statement:

“We believe GSK is in the best position to move this program forward because of its leading portfolio of antibodies targeting the CD96 axis, and their ability to conduct the complex clinical studies of combination therapies that the development plan will require. This decision also allows 23andMe to strategically invest capital and resources into advancing our diverse portfolio of therapeutic programs.”

Eli Lilly embarks on collaboration with Evotec

18 Jan 2022

Evotec, a German drug discovery firm, announced a new partnership with Eli Lilly for the discovery of new agents in the field of metabolic diseases, with particular focus on diabetes and liver conditions. Eli hopes that Evotec’s significant expertise in metabolic disease, and extensive patient databases on liver conditions, will accelerate the identification and validation of novel targets. As part of the collaboration, Eli Lilly will be able to select up to five programmes to develop and commercialize itself, should they prove successful. The move has the potential to net over $1bn for Evotec, with an undisclosed upfront payment and up to $180m per program plus royalties. 

Merck partners with UNICEF for Molnupiravir in low and middle income countries

18 Jan 2022

Merck announced a partnership with UNICEF that will see the pharma giant allocate 3 million doses of the investigational product, Molnupiravir, to low- and middle-income countries for the fight against COVID-19, following regulatory authorizations. Molnupiravir is being developed by Merck in partnership with Ridgeback Pharmaceuticals. The partnership seeks to advance access to novel antivirals for the coronavirus, after multiple concerns for the unequal distribution of COVID treatments and vaccines across the globe were raised throughout the last year. Merck produced 10m courses of the treatment in 2021, and is expected to reach the 20m mark in 2022 – the UNICEF allocation sees a significant chunk of this production capacity allocated to 100 countries in need. This is in addition to other voluntary licensing agreements that Merck is embarking on to improve global access for treatments.

Novo Nordisk embarks on obesity collaboration with EraCal Therapeutics

17 Jan 2022

Pharma giant Novo Nordisk will be entering into a research agreement with Swiss EraCal Therapeutics to advance drug targets for obesity. The obesity epidemic remains a large, and still growing, concern throughout the developed world – with record rates of afflicted individuals. The collaboration will involve trialing new targets for obesity-related pathways and metabolic health in Zebrafish larvae, a growing drug discovery platform. This method is expected to address bioavailability and toxicity concerns, particularly adverse events related to the central nervous system, at an early phase of drug screening. This is crucial, as existing obesity medications are notable for their erratic safety profiles. The platform was praised by Novo Nordisk VP, Dr. Kirsten Raun:

“The zebrafish platform offers a unique opportunity for unbiased, high-throughput phenotypic screening of human-relevant peptide and small molecule libraries stemming from our drug discovery efforts within obesity”

Nick Zoukas, Former Editor, PharmaFEATURES