Deals, Development and Manufacturing

Mustang intends to combine an oncolytic virus with an interleukin-13 Rα2-(IL13Rα2)-specific chimeric antigen receptor to potentially enhance efficacy in treating glioblastoma multiforme.

Teva will apply Insilico’s technology for predictive biomanufacturing to create more efficient biomanufacturing processes.

India’s Bharat Biotech is set to acquire GlaxoSmithKline’s Chiron Behring Vaccines, a World Health Organization-prequalified global manufacturer of rabies vaccines.

The company will invest an additional $60 million to expand its manufacturing facility in Durham County, NC.

The partners will collaborate on the development and commercialization of a B-cell maturation antigen-targeting immunotherapeutic for treating multiple myeloma.

Pathios Therapeutics and Sygnature Discovery have signed a strategic and innovative partnership agreement aimed at accelerating Pathios’ drug discovery and development programs.

The multi-year agreement will give Novartis access to AbCellera’s expertise and state-of-the-art antibody discovery technology for up to ten clinically-relevant disease targets.

The companies will use a $4.4-million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to discover sustainable alternatives to shark squalene to use as vaccine adjuvants.

C-Bridge Capital will form a new biopharmaceutical company, AffaMed Therapeutics, which will collaborate with Samsung Bioepis to accelerate clinical development and registration of Samsung Bioepis’ next-generation biosimilars in China.

The companies will jointly develop and commercialize an investigational bifunctional fusion protein immunotherapy currently in clinical development for cancer treatment.

In a deal potentially worth up to $460 million, Genentech and Xencor will develop and commercialize novel cytokine therapeutics.

Company launches new services dedicated to emerging biotech and biopharma companies.

TrakCel and WindMIL Therapeutics have formed a partnership to build a custom-configured cellular supply chain tracking and orchestration platform.

Sphere Fluidics has closed its latest investment round in which it raised US$2 million (approximately £1.5 million).

The acquisition will boost Hitachi Chemical’s presence in the European regenerative medicines market.

Janssen and MeiraGTx will collaborate on the development and commercialization of gene therapies for treating inherited retinal diseases.

Full commercial launch of the drug is underway in the United States, with Europe to follow.

Solentim and ATUM have announced a technology collaboration agreement that will focus on the creation of an efficient cell line development solution for biotherapeutic drug developers.

A strategic collaboration has been formed between 4D pharma and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The companies will offer an IT platform that enhances the visibility and performance of the overall personalized medicine treatment process.

The agreement gives Sanofi access to Biomunex’s proprietary bi- and multi-specific-antibody-generating platform.

The companies will collaborate to improve the manufacturability for two of Sanofi’s biotherapeutics.

Agenus will leverage Selexis’ SUREtechnology Platform to progress Agenus’ portfolio of next-generation antibody programs.

The companies entered a license agreement for the Trianni Mouse, a transgenic mouse R&D platform for the discovery of fully-human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), to support MacroGenics’ discovery programs for mAb-based therapeutics.

The companies will work together to discover and develop new treatments for neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

The partnership provides Sarepta with capacity and manufacturing slots for GMP-grade plasmid production for its micro-dystrophin Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy program, as well as plasmid capacity for future gene therapy programs.

Merger cites combined strengths in oncology, immunology and inflammation, and cardiovascular disease.

Bio/pharma companies are successfully launching novel therapies; however, the industry still needs to work on manufacturing innovation.

Agilent and other partners are funding development of Tapestri, a single-cell sequencing platform designed to help predict cancer relapse in individual patients and show the efficacy of gene-editing experiments.

The company will use GE Healthcare’s off-the-shelf KUBio biologics factory, which is expected to start operations in 2020, to provide development and manufacturing for early- to late-clinical and early-commercial manufacturing stages.