Deals, Development and Manufacturing

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.

The companies aim to advance research into inflammatory bowel disease.

The UK's government has revealed the details of the second Life Sciences sector deal, forming part of the Industrial Strategy.

The acquisition will give Genentech full rights to Jecure’s preclinical portfolio of NLRP3 inhibitors.

The investment builds on a collaboration the companies entered into in 2007 for various biomanufacturing projects.

The partnership, co-funded by Enterprise Ireland, will develop technologies for monitoring the quality of biopharma processes.

Cobra, Pall, and Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult are collaborating to develop continuous manufacturing for gene therapy production.

The University of South Australia is working to develop needle-free vaccines for Zika, chikingunya, and peanut allergy in a collaboration with Australian biotechnology company Sementis and Enesi Pharma, a United Kingdom-based pharmaceutical company.

Under the new long-term agreement, Sartorius Stedim Biotech will continue to offer Lonza media and buffer products under non-exclusive terms.

AstraZeneca is set to divest United States rights to Synagis (palivizumab) to Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi), a biopharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases, for $1.5 billion.

The companies will develop AMG 714, a novel anti-IL-15 monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of gluten-free diet non-responsive celiac disease in a collaboration worth $170 million.