BUSINESS CONCENTRATES
Chemistry Council. However, Hamner’s Institute for Chemical Safety Sciences will live on. SciMetrika, a Durham, N.C.-based population health consulting firm, acquired the chemical safety institute and has hired its staff of 28 scientists.—MSR
MERCK TAPS QUARTET FOR R&D Quartet Medicine and Merck & Co. have formed a research partnership based on Quartet’s pipeline of small-molecule drugs modulating the tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) pathway. Quartet will receive $20 million, split equally between an up-front payment and milestone payments, to advance pain and inflammation treatment candidates to Phase II clinical trials. In return, Merck gets an exclusive option to purchase Quartet, in which case Quartet will receive an undisclosed option exercise payment and milestone payments of up to $575 million.—RM
C4 LAUNCHES, MAKES DEAL WITH ROCHE C4 Therapeutics has launched from James E. Bradner’s lab at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute with $73 million in financing. The firm is developing Degronimids, small-molecule binders that target disease-causing proteins and facilitate their clearance from
cells through the natural ubiquitin-proteasome system. The molecules offer a promising approach for previously undruggable proteins, it says. At the same time, C4 will work with Roche to develop Degronimids against unspecified targets. The deal could be worth more than $750 million.—MM
SANOFI ENDS INSULIN DEAL WITH MANNKIND Sanofi has ended its license and collaboration agreement with MannKind after disappointing sales of the inhaled insulin product Afrezza. In August 2014, MannKind and Sanofi signed a $925 million deal to develop and commercialize Afrezza. The companies launched Afrezza in February 2015, but sales totaled only $5 million for the first nine months of 2015. MannKind had spent more than a decade and $2.6 billion to develop an inhaled insulin while many larger firms halted their attempts. The product will be transitioned back to MannKind, which is looking to find a new partner, marketing strategy, and pricing approach.—AMT
MILLENDO LICENSES ASTRAZENECA DRUG Millendo Therapeutics, formerly known as Atterocor, has licensed a compound from AstraZeneca and raised new funding to
BUSINESS ROUNDUP
will provide technology and know-how.
EVONIK Industries is investing more than $50 million in a new specialty copolyester plant at its Witten, Germany, site. The resins are used in metal coatings such as coil coatings and the coatings for the inner lining of food cans.
GABRIEL Performance Products has acquired InChem’s phenoxy resins business, which is based in Rock Hill, S.C. Gabriel, a specialty chemical maker in Ashtabula, Ohio, recently acquired BASF’s Versamid line of polyamide curing agents used with solvent-borne epoxies.
CELANESE and China’s Sichuan Wuliangye plan a joint venture to produce cellulose acetate-based specialty products including plastics and films. Under the agreement, Sichuan Wuliangye will contribute certain cellulose acetate production assets to the venture. Celanese
RODIN Therapeutics and Biogen are joining to develop therapeutics for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Biogen will make up-front and milestone payments to Rodin and has an option to acquire
the firm. Rodin also raised $17 million from a preferred stock sale to Biogen and venture capital firm Atlas Venture. BRISTOL-MYERS Squibb and Oncodesign have formed a partnership to develop macrocyclic compounds to treat cancer and other illnesses. The two will use Oncodesign’s platform for developing small macrocycles as well as its proprietary cancer pharmacology technologies. Oncodesign will receive an up-front payment of $3 million. MERCK KGAA, Pfizer, and Syndax have formed a partnership to evaluate
CEN.ACS.ORG
17
advance research on treatments for orphan and specialty endocrine diseases. Millendo will license AstraZeneca’s AZD4901, a therapy for the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormonal disorder whose symptoms include infertility. In exchange, AstraZeneca will receive an undisclosed upfront payment from and take an equity stake in Millendo. Separately, Millendo raised $62 million from new and existing investors including Roche. A Roche representative will join Millendo’s board.—MSR
EDITAS IPO ADVANCES AMID PATENT DISPUTE Editas Medicine has filed for a $100 million initial public offering of stock. If it launches the IPO, Editas will be the first of the inventor-backed firms created around CRISPR gene-editing technology to go public. Founded in 2013, Editas has a license to the first foundational CRISPR patent, awarded to MIT’s Feng Zhang. A few days before the filing, a federal patent examiner recommended that the Patent Trial & Appeal Board institute an interference proceeding over rights to the technology between Zhang’s patent and a competing application filed by Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley. The board often follows such recommendations. Doing so would bring about one of the biggest patent fights in the biotech world.—AMT
the combination of avelumab, an investigational, fully human anti-PD-L1 1gG1 monoclonal antibody being developed jointly by the German firm and Pfizer with Syndax’s entinostat, an investigational small-molecule therapy targeting immune regulatory cells for treatment of ovarian cancer. Syndax will be responsible for conducting Phase I and II clinical trials. MIMETAS, a Netherlands-based biotechnology firm, will receive $1.6 million to develop an organ-on-a-chip model to predict the neurotoxic effects of chemicals and pharmaceuticals. A panel of experts, including
JANUARY 11, 2016
from BASF, Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline, working under the aegis of the U.K.-based National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research, made the award. BAXALTA has partnered with Danish recombinant antibodies and antibody mixtures expert Symphogen to develop immuno-oncology therapeutics against six targets. Baxalta will pay Symphogen $175 million up front in exchange for exclusive options to complete development of and commercialize the six therapies following Phase I development at Symphogen.
