Merck KGaA takes up option to license bispecific antibody 20-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves The company opts into its second bispecific antibody through its partnership with F-star Therapeutics.
J&J to start P3 COVID-19 vaccine trials in September 20-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Moving on an accelerated timeline, the company seeks late September start date and to exceed 1bn doses by end of 2021.
Moderna releases positive early vaccine data, signs fill-finish deal 16-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves The biotech provides more detail on Phase I study of its COVID-19 vaccine and agrees commercial fill-finish manufacturing.
Merck CEO: COVID-19 vaccine manufacture and distribution ‘huge issue’ 15-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Kenneth Frazier states manufacture of potential vaccine is ‘bigger challenge’ than developing an effective vaccine.
Takeda deal looks to bolster biologics pipeline 14-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Takeda partners with Twist Bioscience for access to platform to discover, validate and optimize antibodies in its pipeline.
Blackstone closes $4.6bn life sciences fund 14-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Blackstone Life Sciences completes first private fund to invest in treatments in late-stage development.
Dewpoint and Merck in $305m deal for HIV ‘cure’ 14-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves The two partners will use Dewpoint’s platform, focusing on biomolecular condensates, to treat the disease.
BeiGene launches $2bn share offering, backed by Amgen 13-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Chinese biotech plans to raise the sum as working capital, as it looks to progress its pipeline.
Sanofi signs €875m deal with Kiadis 13-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Sanofi looks to supplement its Sarclisa therapy with investigational treatment to treat multiple myeloma.
French biotech gets funding for universal flu and coronavirus vaccines 09-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Osivax receives public funding to apply its vaccine technology to protect against COVID-19 and future coronavirus strains.
Operation Warp Speed delivers $2bn to scale COVID-19 solutions 08-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Novavax is the principle recipient of the funding, as US government provides capital in return for guaranteed access to doses.
Regeneron COVID-19 antibody cocktail enters late-stage trials 07-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Regeneron’s potential coronavirus treatment enters Phase III and US government provides capital injection for manufacture.
Tesla’s ‘side project’ building RNA microfactories for CureVac 03-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Elon Musk revealed the news on Twitter that Tesla was working with CureVac and ‘possibly others’ to produce RNA vaccines.
Takeda expands in gene therapy with $900m R&D deal 02-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Takeda signs R&D agreement with Carmine for the development of two non-viral gene therapies.
Pfizer posts positive vaccine results and capacity for 1.2bn doses 02-Jul-2020 By Ben Hargreaves Pfizer and BioNTech release positive results from Phase I/II trials investigating their mRNA vaccine against COVID-19.
