The Weekly Roundup newsletter curates the top five - deals, pipeline, funding, and news from the past week.

The complete list is available here: Industry Updates

🤝Deals and Collaborations

1️⃣ Livzon acquires rights to GERD therapy from Onconic for $127.5mn. Livzon acquired China rights to a gastroesophageal reflux disease therapy Zastaprazan is a P-CAB (potassium-competitive acid-blocking) candidate, a class of drugs replacing existing PPIs (proton pump inhibitors) for peptic ulcer disease.

2️⃣ Perspective Therapeutics, PharmaLogic partner to develop theranostics for cancer. PharmaLogic will produce and supply doses of VMT-01 and VMT-α-NET for use in Perspective's early-stage clinical trials.

3️⃣ Miltenyi Biotec acquires biosensor company Lino Biotech. Lino Biotech has made significant advances in developing new biosensors to facilitate quality control in bioprocessing, measuring viral load in cell & gene therapy manufacturing, and testing for off-target responses in living cells to support drug discovery.

4️⃣ Prelude inks deal with BeiGene to trial combo in hematologic malignancies. Collaboration for future evaluation of its investigational CDK9 inhibitor, PRT2527, in combination with BeiGene’s BTK inhibitor, zanubrutinib, in hematologic malignancies.

5️⃣ ArkBio and Scripps Research extend partnership for a novel respiratory candidate —collaboration to develop AK0705, a potential first-in-class drug targeting an enzyme involved in respiratory inflammation. ArkBio will lead the preclinical development of the enzyme, with Calibr contributing its expertise.

⏫ Pipeline and Approvals

1️⃣ Dermatology: Eli Lilly forays into dermatological space with the launch of psoriasis drug

2️⃣ Anti-infective: Everest approved to launch antibiotic in China for intra-abdominal infections

3️⃣ Autoimmune: China approves tocilizumab copy biological BAT1806

4️⃣ Oncology: Servier's Phase III INDIGO trial investigating vorasidenib meets goals

5️⃣ Nephrology: Everest’s in-licensed kidney drug meets endpoints in Phase III trial

💰 Funding

1️⃣ South Korea's Prestige Biologics attracts $59mn overseas investment. Prestige Biologics stated that the latest investment will provide the company with cash flow and enhance its financial stability, allowing it to pursue CDMO orders more aggressively.

2️⃣ Noema Pharma raises $112mn in Series B financing for nervous system disorders. Financing will support the continued development of its diversified pipeline focused on central nervous system disorders.

3️⃣ Mediar Therapeutics announces $105mn financing to advance portfolio of first-in-class fibrosis therapies. The series A financing will support advancement of the company's portfolio of first-in-class antibody treatments, which offer unique potential to address fibrosis at varying stages of the disease, with two programs advancing into human studies in 2024.

4️⃣ Aldena raises $30mn to advance skin-deep siRNA therapies. Funds will help accelerate the development of its siRNA-based therapies for immuno-dermatology indications.

5️⃣ Perspectum completes $55mn Series C to improve metabolic disease diagnosis. The company makes medical imaging devices designed to improve the diagnosis of metabolic diseases and cancer. Its flagship product is a diagnostic tool that assesses and monitors chronic liver disease.

📰 Interesting News

1️⃣ A global overview of manufacturers of follow-on biologicals. The study identified a total of 304 unique follow-on biologicals from different manufacturers for the 18 active substances that were analysed. Only 67 of these 304 ‘unique’ products are approved as biosimilar in any of the five major biosimilar markets and are therefore considered biosimilars

2️⃣ How a good night’s rest can change your life: A lot of new research shows just how important sleep really is. New research shows the quality of sleep may positively impact the quality of life, and experts recommend getting enough rest in ample sleeping conditions for better life satisfaction.

3️⃣ 10 immunotherapy companies making waves in 2023: Immunotherapies have long been used to treat allergies, and have been a turning point in autoimmune disorders research, specifically CAR-T cell therapy.

4️⃣ 5 reasons why collaboration is important in research: In the life sciences industry, collaboration is paramount in the field of research, to help move ideas and programs forward through the various stages.

5️⃣ Greener pastures for biotech? 7 great biotechs from Ireland. The low corporate tax policies of Ireland have managed to attract some big names from various sectors, and the life sciences industry is no exception