Founded in 2021 by Aditum Bio, Versanis is built around a drug licensed from Novartis. The antibody, called bimagrumab, is designed to block cellular communication via two types of protein regulators and is being studied in people who are overweight or obese.
Lilly’s planned purchase of Versanis is the latest in a monthlong M&A streak that’s included acquisitions of Dice Therapeutics, Sigilon Therapeutics and Emergence Therapeutics.
The dealmaking gives Lilly new drug candidates in areas of research it has prioritized, like immune diseases, cancer and obesity. Its recent success developing drugs for the latter condition has fueled a stock price surge that’s made it the most valuable pharmaceutical company in the world.
Lilly’s most advanced drug in testing for weight loss, an injection called Mounjaro, targets a hormone called GLP-1, similar to Novo Nordisk’s wildly popular diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. Another promising medicine that’s not as far along also targets GLP-1, as well as two other hormones. READ MORE
by Ned Pagliarulo
Source: biopharmadive.com
CordenPharma announced its largest strategic investment to date, committing to spend ~€900m over the next three years to enhance its peptide technology platform. The planned investment consists of two major expansion initiatives occurring in parallel in the US and Europe, including both existing facilities and new constructions.
DSM-Firmenich has announced the sale of its MEG-3 fish oil business to KD Pharma Group, a contract development and manufacturing organisation that is active in pharmaceutical and nutritional lipids. As part of the transaction, DSM-Firmenich will obtain a minority stake of 29% in KD Pharma’s parent company O³ Holding GmbH.
Veranova, a development and manufacturing of specialist and complex APIs for the pharmaceutica l and biotech sectors, recently announced the appointment of Cécile Maupas as Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer. Cécile will join the executive team and assume responsibility for business development, marketing, project management, commercial operations, and product management.
