Novartis is acquiring more of stem cell partner Gamida Cell but steering away from buying the company outright as it blueprints a Phase III trial for its blood cancer therapy.
The Swiss pharma giant is paying $5 million up front for another 2.5% of Gamida equity and agreeing to invest another $10 million by the end of 2017 if certain conditions are met. The financing follows a 2014 deal in which Novartis paid $35 million for a 15% stake in the Israeli biotech.
Novartis has been supporting Gamida’s work for years but has twice passed on an option to acquire the company en masse for up to $600 million. In June, Gamida majority shareholder Elbit Imaging disclosed that Novartis had walked away from its right to buy it for $165 million up front and $435 million in milestones. Novartis passed on a similar opportunity in 2014.
Gamida has moved forward undaunted, now planning to launch a Phase III trial for its NiCord in mid-2016. NiCord is a stem cell treatment derived from umbilical cord blood and designed to work in lieu of bone marrow transplants for patients with leukemia and lymphoma. The company is also at work on a preclinical project focused on the potential of so-called natural killer cells in oncology, plus a version of NiCord for nonmalignant blood diseases, including sickle cell.
By Damian Garde
Source: Fierce Biotech
A monkeypox outbreak is emerging in the U.S. and Europe, and at least one country is amping up countermeasure preparedness. Bavarian Nordic has secured a contract with an unnamed European country to supply its smallpox vaccine, called Imvanex in Europe, in response to the emergence of monkeypox cases, the Danish company said Thursday.
Moderna’s recent chief financial officer debacle—in which Jorge Gomez departed on his second day on the job—raised questions about the company’s hiring process given its rush to global biopharma prominence. The most obvious one: How was it possible for Gomez to be hired when he was under investigation by his previous employer, Dentsply Sirona of Charlotte, N.C.
Merck & Co. is plucking a cancer project from the branch of Chinese-based Kelun Pharmaceutical for up to $1.4 billion, but details from the New Jersey-based Big Pharma have been hard to come by. The deal, first disclosed Monday on the Shenzhen stock exchange, has Merck handing over $47 million in upfront cash in exchange for ex-China rights to a “macromolecular tumor project.”
