Biogen has fleshed out its plan to spin out its blood disorder products and candidates into a separate publicly traded company. The new co will be known as Bioverativ and is slated to launch in early 2017 and trade on the Nasdaq market.
It will include commercialized hemophilia drugs Eloctate and Alprolix, which are partnered with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi), as well as a pipeline including gene therapy programs for hemophilia A and B, a non-factor bispecific antibody program to treat patients with hemophilia A and those with inhibitors, as well as sickle cell disease research.
“We’ve chosen to spin off our growing hemophilia business, because we believe it’s the right decision to ensure fit and focus,” said outgoing Biogen CEO George Scangos on the company’s July earnings call.
He added, “That business continues to perform well, with combined second quarter revenues of over $200 million for Eloctate and Alprolix. Alprolix also was approved by the European Commission for the treatment of hemophilia B and will be commercialized in the EU by our collaboration partner, Sobi.”
Bioverativ will be headed by CEO John Cox, formerly Biogen EVP of Pharmaceutical Operations & Technology. “The new company’s name creates a clear connection to our Biogen heritage and biotech focus,” he said in a statement. Biogen first announced its spinoff plans earlier this year in May.
The new company is expected to use the revenues from the marketed drugs to support continued R&D in blood disorders. Specifically, it hopes to create longer acting therapies based on its XTEN technology and get this into the clinic during the first half of 2017. In addition, it expects to move faster on the development for bispecific antibodies and hemophilia-related gene therapy programs.
Bioverative also plans to conduct clinical testing on Eloctate as a potential means to rapidly induce immune tolerance in hemophilia patients who develop inhibitors.
By Stacy Lawrence
Source: Fierce Biotech
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
