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Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Visterra closed a definitive merger agreement for an approx. value of $ 430 million. The deal will allow Otsuka to access the Hierotope platform for the design and engineering of next-generation antibody-based therapies. Visterra’s pipeline includes programs targeting IgA nephropathy and other kidney diseases, cancer, chronic pain and infectious diseases. Following completion of the acquisition, Visterra will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Otsuka America. The acquired platform also includes Fc engineering capabilities for half-life extension, bispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

Quetera, a UK-based gene therapy company focused on developing novel treatments for ocular disorders including glaucoma, has been acquired by Japanese pharma company Astellas. Under the terms of the agreement, Astellas may pay up to £85 million in upfront and contingent payments, while Quethera becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas.

Quethera’s ophthalmic gene therapy program uses a recombinant adeno-associated viral vector system (rAAV) to introduce therapeutic genes into target retinal cells for the treatment of glaucoma. The lead pre-clinical candidate of the program has demonstrated significantly improved survival of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in pre-clinical models.

Transformative therapies for serious liver disease are at the center of the partnership signed between Takeda and Ambys Medicines, a biotechnology company pioneering the application of cell and gene therapy and gain-of-function drug therapy. The final goal is to identify new treatments able to restore liver function and prevent the progression to liver failure across multiple liver diseases that are currently untreatable or poorly treated. According to Takeda, the company has invested $100 million, including participation in the Series A financing, and received an option to ex-U.S. commercialization rights for the first four products that reach an investigational new drug application. Takeda will also share in 50% of the development costs for any optioned program and will make development and regulatory milestone payments.

Boehringer Ingelheim has acquired all shares of ViraTherapeutics (VT), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of oncolytic viral therapies. According to the company, the deal has a total value of € 10 million. ViraTherapeutics was founded in 2013 as a spin-out of the Medical University of Innsbruck focused on the development of oncolytic cancer vaccines based on a chimeric virus derived from the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). The company was participated by the two venture investors EMBL Ventures and the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF). VT’s lead candidate VSV-GP is being investigated alone and in combination with other therapies, and it has shown promising results in pre-clinical models.

Danish company Novo Nordisk announced the restructure of its Research & Development (R&D) organisation, an effort that shall laid off approximately 400 employees from R&D roles in Denmark and China. The company will establish four Transformational Research Units in 2018 to pursue novel treatment modalities and platform technologies. The biotech-like units, based in Denmark, the US and the UK, will operate as satellites of Novo Nordisk’s central R&D function working on priority fields such as translational cardio-metabolic research and stem cell research. Novo Nordisk will also significantly invest in automation and digital capabilities, including machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). A new Business Development unit in Cambridge, MA, (US) shall also be created in order to facilitate the identification and pursuit of new therapeutic approaches based on external collaborations.

A four-year collaboration to identify novel drug targets, tackle new subsets of disease and enable rapid progression of clinical programmes has been signed between GSK and 23andMe, a leading consumer genetics company with more than 5 million customers and a portfolio of early stage therapeutic research programmes across a wide range of disease indications. Both companies shall bring existing early stage programmes within the collaboration; GSK will contribute its LRRK2 inhibitor, which is currently in preclinical development as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease. All activities will initially be co-funded (50%/50%). GSK has also made a $300 million equity investment in 23andMe, and it will have the right to analyse its database for validation of GSK’s existing therapeutic portfolio as well as leverage 23andMe’s capabilities for clinical trial recruitment. 23andMe customers voluntary and affirmatively consented to participate to research and mantain the control of their data, which are used after de-identification, so no individual will be identifiable to GSK.

Gilead closed a strategic collaboration with Precision BioSciences to develop therapies targeting the in vivo elimination of hepatitis B virus (HBV) using Precision’s proprietary genome editing platform, Arcus. According to the company, Precision will be primarily responsible for the development, formulation, and preclinical evaluation of the investigational nucleases, and Gilead will be responsible for the clinical development and commercialization of potential therapies. R&D activities will be funded by Gilead, while Precision is eligible to receive milestone payments up to $445 million, plus tiered royalties.

Gilead also closed a license agreement with Trianni to use its transgenic human monoclonal antibody discovery platform to support the Gilead’s drug discovery efforts.

Merck‘s current Chief executive officer, Kenneth C. Frazier, shall rest in his position beyond December 2019, when he turns 65. The announcement followed the decision of Merck’s Board of Directors that rescinded the CEO’s mandatory retirement at age 65. “CEO succession has been our top priority, and removing the mandatory retirement policy enables the Board to make the best decision concerning the timing of that transition,” said Leslie A. Brun, lead director, speaking on behalf of the Board of Directors.

Ferring Pharmaceuticals (https://www.ferring.com/) signed an agreement for the global commercialisation rights to nadofaragene firadenovec/Syn3 (rAd-IFN/Syn3), a novel gene therapy developed by Finnish gene therapy specialists FKD Therapies Oy as a treatment for patients with high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) unresponsive to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) therapy. rAd-IFN/Syn3 is currently undergoing Phase 3 development in the US under the sponsorship of FKD.

Ono Pharmaceutical (https://www.ono.co.jp/eng/) announced the establishment of the new Immune-mediated Inflammatory Diseases Consortium for Drug Development to run drug discovery research targeting immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Other participants to the initiative include Keio University, Kochi University, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation and Daiichi Sankyo. The consortium will work to overcome challenges due to limitations on clinical samples from immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and further increases in research costs.