Deals, Development and Manufacturing

The European Commission’s approval of the Catalent acquisition by Novo Holdings includes the related acquisition of three manufacturing sites by Novo Nordisk, which is also acquiring the Czech Republic manufacturing site of Novavax for $200 million.

Under the deal, Novartis will in-license PTC518, an mRNA splice modulator for the huntingtin gene, which has the potential to be the first oral disease-modifying therapy for Huntington's disease.

Cambrex will provide Lilly’s biotech collaborators with accelerated access to clinical development capabilities.

Under the collaboration, the companies will create and test circVec DNA–LNP formulations with an eye toward potential therapeutic applications.

Ginkgo Bioworks has achieved the first milestone in an ongoing partnership with Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, aimed at improving biologics production.

TrakCel's OCELLOS, an IT platform, has been selected to orchestrate the administration of five out of seven autologous or matched allogenic cell therapy products approved or expected to be approved in 2024.

Under an agreement, Leads Biolabs has granted the new company, Oblenio Bio, an exclusive option to license LBL-051, a tri-specific T-cell engager antibody.

Lonza’s Synnafix has licensed its ADC technology to BigHat Biosciences, which will combine it with its ML design platform to generate newly designed ADCs.

The collaboration aims to develop precision genetic medicines using ViaNautis’ proprietary polyNaut technology platform.

The companies expect to accelerate the clinical development of MRT-6160, a Phase I drug candidate, as well as explore further therapeutic opportunities across multiple indications.

Through the collaboration, Merck will use Mestag’s proprietary RAFT platform to investigate the pathogenic role that fibroblasts play in inflammatory diseases.

Under the long-term supply agreement, Lonza will manufacture CASGEVY (exagamglogene autotemcel) for Vertex at its facility in Geleen, the Netherlands, and plans to expand manufacturing to Portsmouth, NH, in the United States.

With the completion of its acquisition of Morphic, Lilly expands its immunology pipeline to include Morphic's oral integrin therapies to address inflammatory bowel disease.

Under a deal worth potentially up to $1.3 billion, Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, will acquire CN201, a next-generation bispecific antibody, from Curon Biopharmaceutical.

Genentech will leverage Sangamo’s proprietary capsid delivery platform and epigenetic regulation capabilities to develop genomic medicines to address certain neurodegenerative diseases.

Under the license agreement, Andelyin Biosciences will expand its AAV Curator Platform by including MyoAAV plasmids developed by Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

With this acquisition, AbbVie gains Cerevel’s clinical-stage assets that complement AbbVie's emerging neuroscience pipeline as well as branded products for treating psychiatric disorders, migraine, and Parkinson's disease.

Under the expanded agreement, Univercells and University of Pennsylvania will evaluate certain bioreactors for scalable gene therapy production.

Pluri’s newly launched CDMO business will manufacture two novel cell therapy product candidates for Kadimastem.

The acquisition adds a Phase III therapeutic peptide candidate to AstraZeneca’s late-stage pipeline for rare diseases.

The acquisition of EyeBio adds a late-phase antibody drug candidate for diabetic macular edema and neovascular age-related macular degeneration to Merck’s pipeline.

The acquisition adds NM26, a Phase II-ready bispecific antibody for treating atopic dermatitis, to Johnson & Johnson’s immune-mediated and inflammatory disease portfolio.

With the acquisition, Olink will join Thermo Fisher’s Life Sciences Solutions business.

Through a multi-year collaboration, Pfizer and Evotec aim to conduct early discovery research for therapeutics against metabolic and infectious diseases.

The companies have restructured their existing collaboration into a licensing agreement that invests in mRNA development.

A strategic partnership between LenioBio and Labscoop is aimed at making scalable cell-free protein synthesis technology more accessible across North America.

This collaboration aims to support and accelerate clinical development of advanced and novel technologies.

The Celsius Therapeutics acquisition will add CEL383, a potential first-in-class anti-TREM1 antibody for IBD, to AbbVie’s portfolio.

With the Proteologix acquisition, Johnson & Johnson gains two bispecific antibody early phase assets for immune-mediated diseases.

Swiss CDMO CordenPharma and Spain-based Certest will collaborate on the development of ionizable lipids for LNP formulations.