The Friday Five newsletter will focus on the top five - deals, pipeline, funding, and news of the week. The complete list is available here: Industry Updates

🤝Deals and Collaborations

1️⃣ Bristol Myers Squibb in a $4.1bn deal to acquire Turning Point Therapeutics. Turning Point is a clinical-stage precision oncology company with a pipeline of investigational medicines created to target the most common mutations linked to oncogenesis.

2️⃣ MigVax taps Catalent to deliver COVID-19 vaccine orally. Catalent to undertake a feasibility study to formulate MigVax-101 using its Zydis Bio orally disintegrating tablet (ODT) dose form technology. The MigVax-101 vaccine utilizes a chimeric protein to generate three simultaneous immunological responses: mucosal, blood-based, and cell-mediated immunity.

3️⃣ BioCryst selects Pint Pharma as a commercial partner for ORLADEYO (berotralstat) in Latin America. Pint Pharma will be responsible for obtaining and maintaining all marketing authorizations and commercializing ORLADEYO in the pan-LATAM region.

4️⃣ Conectus and Find Therapeutics sign licensing agreement to develop a promising new therapy for multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases. The agreement is to develop a promising therapy for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Optic Neuritis (ON) based on a new class of compounds.

5️⃣ Curia and Replicate Bioscience enter srRNA collaboration. Curia’s experienced process development team will support the GMP production of Replicate Bioscience’s srRNA vectors up to an eight-liter scale (8L), which can be used in Phase 1 through pivotal clinical trials.

⏫ Pipeline and Approvals

1️⃣ China’s NMPA approves CStone’s Sugemalimab for NSCLC treatment

2️⃣ Eagle Pharma files NDA for Landiolol to manage tachycardia

3️⃣ Apellis seeks FDA nod for ophthalmology drug Pegcetacoplan for age-related macular degeneration

4️⃣ FDA approves new indication (Diabetic macular edema) for Novartis' Brolucizumab

5️⃣ Roche receives EU marketing authorization for follicular lymphoma treatment

💰 Funding

1️⃣ Upstream Bio raises $200mn to develop treatments for inflammatory diseases. Upstream Bio intends to use the funds for advancing its lead programme UPB-101, a clinical-stage monoclonal antibody that targets the TSLP receptor.

2️⃣ Code Bio launches with $75mn to disrupt the gene therapy space. Proceeds from the investments will advance Code Bio’s two lead programs in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and Type 1 Diabetes (T1D).

3️⃣ Mineralys Therapeutics closes $118mn oversubscribed Series B financing to advance the development of novel, targeted treatment for hypertension. Mineralys plans to use the proceeds to continue advancing MLS-101, a highly selective aldosterone synthase inhibitor currently being evaluated in Phase 2 clinical trial for hyertension.

4️⃣ Degron Therapeutics raises $22mn Series A financing to accelerate growth and expand molecular-glue-based targeted protein degradation drug discovery platform. Proceeds from the Series A financing will be used to advance the company's GlueXplorer platform, a unique molecular glue-based targeted protein degradation platform to accelerate the development of novel drugs for previously undruggable targets in oncology, inflammation, metabolic disease, and rare diseases.

5️⃣ Ariceum raises funds for Satoreotide development. Funding to develop its main radiopharmaceutical drug Satoreotide for use in the diagnosis and treatment of tumors expressing the somatostatin type 2 receptor.

📰 Interesting News

1️⃣ Report on growth of life sciences sector in eastern Denmark. The life science sector in eastern Denmark consists of around 700 companies. Half of these are micro-companies with nine employees or fewer.

2️⃣ Poor sleep is linked to an increased risk of COPD flare-ups. The risk for these flare-ups -- sudden bouts of worsening breathing -- was 25% to 95% higher in people who experienced poor sleep than in people who had good quality sleep.

3️⃣ Body versus brain: New evidence for an autoimmune cause of schizophrenia. Researchers have found that some people with schizophrenia have autoantibodies- made by the immune system and recognize the body's own proteins, rather than outside threats such as viruses or bacteria- against NCAM1, a vital protein for communication between brain cells.

4️⃣ This parasite will self-destruct: Researchers discover a new weapon against drug-resistant malaria. The research has identified an anti-malarial compound, ML901, which inhibits the malaria parasite but does not harm mammalian -- human or other mammals' -- cells.

5️⃣ Scientists have discovered a new molecule that kills hard-to-treat cancers. A new molecule synthesized by a University of Texas at Dallas researcher kills a broad spectrum of hard-to-treat cancers, including triple-negative breast cancer, by exploiting a weakness in cells not previously targeted by other drugs.