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 Shionogi nabs Japan commercial rights to Grunenthal’s osteoarthritis drug. Shionogi entered into a licensing deal to commercialize Grunenthal’s injectable resiniferatoxin in Japan for the treatment of pain in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.

2️⃣ Looking east, Sanofi pens 'pioneering' cancer drug partnership with China's Innovent. Innovent will have exclusive rights to develop and commercialize tusamitamab in China for multiple types of cancer. Sanofi will be eligible for up to $81mn in milestone payments and royalties.

3️⃣ Aptar acquires Orbital dry powder inhaler license. The Orbital inhaler allows payloads of up to 400mg to be inhaled by patients in divided doses without reloading. It was originally developed as a life cycle extending product for the Pharmaxis cystic fibrosis drug Bronchitol (mannitol).

4️⃣ Navamedic ASA - exclusive agreement with Vectans Pharma for the unique cold sore treatment product Sitavig. Agreement gives Navamedic the exclusive right to market and sell an innovative and unique muco-adhesive buccal tablet for the single-dose treatment of cold sores (herpes labialis) in the Nordic and Benelux regions.

5️⃣ Eris Lifesciences enters licensing deal with Biocon for insulin glargine. The launch of long-acting insulin glargine will help Eris to fill the gap in its insulin portfolio. Eris expects to launch insulin glargine in Q3-FY23.

⏫ Pipeline and Approvals

1️⃣ Diabetes: Cadila Pharma launches generic sitagliptin versions to treat uncontrolled type 2 diabetes

2️⃣ Neurology: Celltrion launches world’s 1st Alzheimer's patch treatment in Korea

3️⃣ Endocrinology: Marius Pharmaceuticals receives FDA Approval of KYZATREX, an oral testosterone replacement therapy

4️⃣ Genetic disorder: FDA gives ok to Krystal Biotech cystic fibrosis clinical trial

5️⃣ Ophthalmology: Coherus wins FDA approval for second Lucentis biosimilar, its third drug

💰 Funding

1️⃣ F2G to push anti-fungal agent with new $70mn funding. Funds will enable F2G to advance late-stage development and commercialization in the U.S. of olorofim, an oral antifungal therapy to treat invasive aspergillosis (IA) and other rare mold infections.

2️⃣ Creso Pharma raising A$7mn million for further US expansion. Funds raised will be used to further expand into the US with a pending acquisition target.

3️⃣ MAIA Biotechnology raises $10mn from a public offering. The company intends to use the net proceeds to fund the first part of the phase 2 trials of its product candidate, THIO-101, for NSCLC.

4️⃣ Immunis closes a $10mn financing round. Proceeds will support the clinical assessment of Immunis' immunomodulatory secretome product in an FDA-awarded Phase 1/2a clinical trial targeting muscle atrophy - an age, disuse, and disease-associated condition experienced by 100% of the population.

5️⃣ Core Biogenesis reels in $10.5mn in series A financing to build a new plant cell facility. Funds to construct a new facility to produce growth factors and cytokines for the expanding cell therapy market and cellular agriculture industry. The startup will also use the funds to hire scientific and technical staff at the plant, which is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2023.

📰 Interesting News

1️⃣ Stop taking Vitamin D already! A new study published in the NEJM, which followed nearly 26,000 men and women for more than 5 years to see if vitamin D supplements would do anything to prevent bone fractures, reported that people who took vitamin D had the same risk of bone fractures as those who didn’t.

2️⃣ Bioengineered head device stops Alzheimer's memory loss for 2.5 years. The paper reports that a small group of Alzheimer's patients given in-home treatment with a bioengineered head device maintained their level of cognitive functioning through 2.5 years of treatment.

3️⃣ The biggest Asia-Pacific biotech investments in July 2022. China’s vaccine developer MaxHealth Biotechnology raised the biggest private biotech investment in the Asia-Pacific region in July 2022, followed by China Immunotech and Ruibo Bio.

4️⃣ The biggest European biotech investments in July 2022. The mRNA firm Normax Biomed snagged Europe’s biggest private biotech investment in July 2022, with runners-up including AgomAb and Tropic Biosciences.

5️⃣ B vitamins can potentially be used to treat advanced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Scientists have found that elevated blood levels of an amino acid called homocysteine to correlate strongly with the severity of an advanced form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. They also found vitamin B12 and folic acid could be used to prevent and/or delay disease progression.