Pharma Investment Roundup 17-Dec-2021

Horizon Therapeutics to partner with Alpine Immune Sciences

16/12/2021

American rare and rheumatic disease firm Horizon Therapeutics have announced a collaboration with Alpine Immune Sciences for the development and commercialization of up to four of the latter’s investigational products. The transaction comes with a $40m initial offering, with up to $1.52b in additional milestone and royalty payments. The move is a natural fit for Horizon, whose specialization in autoimmune diseases can significantly benefit from Alpine’s multifunctional immunotherapy preclinical products. This alignment of purpose was highlighted by Elizabeth Thompson, executive vice president for Research and Development at Horizon:

“This collaboration will expand Horizon’s early pre-clinical pipeline with complementary mechanisms of action to our current clinical stage therapeutics and provide our first pre-clinical, multi-specific development candidate.”

Inceptor Bio partners for CAR-M with University of California

16/12/2021

Cell and Gene Therapy specialist Inceptor Bio will be collaborating with the University of California, Santa Barbara for the development of Chimeric Antigen Receptor Macrophage (CAR-M) Therapies. While CAR-M has not received as much spotlight attention as CAR-T, it has delivered promising results against solid tumors – which remains an area of oncology where immunotherapies require some much needed progress. The technology employed by Inceptor Bio for CAR-M was originally developed at the university – which makes this a natural partnership for further progress in the area; Dr Denise Montell, Professor at UCSB expressed gratitude in seeing fundamental research move on to industry where it could translate to improvements in patient care. 

Vifor Pharma to divest manufacturing after CSL acquisition

16/12/2021

Fresh from announcing its $11.7b acquisition by Australian CSL, Vifor Pharma has announced the divestment of its finished drug activities to CordenPharma. This will re-orient the brand’s focus on its nephrology and iron portfolio by simplifying its structure and organization. The transaction involves CordenPharma acquiring all shares in Vifor SA, Fribourg and OM Pharma SA. This is consistent with the reasoning for the merger with CSL, which seeks to expand the portfolio of the company with the large Vifor pipeline – which consists of 37 product candidates. CEO of Vifor Pharma, Abbas Hussain, had the following to say about the future of the business:

“In support of our ambitious growth strategy, optimizing our manufacturing footprint will enable us to build an even stronger, more efficient organization focusing on core capabilities in nephrology, and to maximize and leverage our market-leading expertise and intellectual property in iron deficiency”

Biogen to partner with TheraPanacea for digital services

14/12/2021

Neuroscience firm Biogen has made public its plans to partner with TheraPanacea in     their joint pursuit of treatments for neurological diseases. Under the terms of the agreement, Biogen will invest $15 million in TheraPanacea in exchange for convertible debt, with additional future milestone payments. TheraPanacea specializes in Artificial Intelligence, and Biogen seeks to leverage this to cultivate its digital health offerings for patient care as well as accelerate its own drug discovery and development. The use of AI in diagnostics is hoped to enable improved clinical trial design for Biogen, as well. Although TheraPanacea specializes in applying its innovative technologies in oncology, Biogen has had an existing collaboration with the company – and it is expected that their new partnership will lead to novel developments for both companies. 

Vaccitech to purchase Avidea Technologies

13/12/2021

British clinical-stage vaccine firm Vaccitech will be buying American Avidea Technologies, in a transaction valued at $40 million. Vaccitech is a pioneer in viral vectored vaccines, having co-invented the ChAdOx-vectored vaccine for COVID-19 in partnership with the University of Oxford – which was later commercialised by AstraZeneca. The move will grant Vaccitech access to Avidea’s SNAPvax platform, which will enable the fine-tuning of the magnitude of triggered immune responses to immunotherapies and vaccines. This is expected to be of considerable value to Vaccitech’s portfolios, both in oncology and infectious disease. CEO of Vaccitech, Bill Enright, highlighted the importance of the move in a statement:

“Avidea’s technologies are complementary to our own ChAdOx-MVA prime-boost platform and create a powerful opportunity to accelerate the development of novel product candidates for exciting new disease areas.”

Philips acquires Vesper Medical

14/12/2021

Philips has announced plans to acquire American Vesper Medical, which specialises in the development of peripheral vascular devices. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, and will be further expanding Philips’ already solid position in medical diagnostics and therapeutic devices. One of the important products that Philips will gain access to is Vesper Medical’s DUO Venous System, which is uniquely engineered to remove venal obstructions. Philips already has a significant portfolio of peripheral vascular devices – particularly following its earlier purchase of Intact Vascular in 2020. Senior Vice President and General Manager for Image Guided Therapy Devices at Philips, Chris Landon, pointed out the alignment of Vesper’s portfolio with Philips’ future growth:

“The acquisition of Vesper Medical is another step in our objective to innovate patient treatment with more sophisticated technology and expand our growth in the vascular therapy space.”

Pfizer merger with Arena Pharmaceuticals

13/12/2021

Pharma giant Pfizer has announced plans to purchase small molecules firm Arena Pharmaceuticals. Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will acquire all shares in Arena, in a transaction valued at $6.7b. Notably, the transaction will be financed by cash in hand – perhaps not so surprising given Pfizer’s success throughout the pandemic. The move will grant Pfizer the rights to Arena’s extensive portfolio of small molecule product candidates for immuno-inflammatory diseases, including products such as etrasimod for skin and gastrointestinal diseases and temanogrel for microvascular obstruction and Raynaud’s phenomenon. Pfizer highlighted its portfolio expansion in a statement by Global Manager and President, Mike Gladstone:

“The proposed acquisition of Arena complements our capabilities and expertise in Inflammation and Immunology, a Pfizer innovation engine developing potential therapies for patients with debilitating immuno-inflammatory diseases with a need for more effective treatment options”

Baxter completes merger with Hillrom

13/12/2021

American medical technology heavyweight Baxter has completed its acquisition of Hillrom, valued at $10.5b. The move brings Baxter’s overall value up to $15b, establishing the company as one of the leaders in global medical technologies. Baxter now has ownership of not only legacy Hillrom products, but also Welch Allyn – which was previously acquired by Hillrom. The merger is expected to drive significant growth for Baxter, as indicated by CEO Jose E. Almeida

“Integrating our complementary capabilities introduces additional opportunities for growth across our broad geographic footprint and also creates remarkable new possibilities for connectivity with leading-edge digital health innovation focused on enhancing care, lowering costs and increasing workflow efficiency.”

Nick Zoukas, Former Editor, PharmaFEATURES