Novartis AG has agreed to pay up to $1.6 billion to Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its unit Akcea Therapeutics for the rights to two cardiovascular drugs.
The deal involves an upfront payment to Iona and Akcea of $75 million plus a $100 million equity investment in Iona. Novartis has also agreed to invest a further $50 million in either Ionis or Akcea within 18 months, as well as payments worth up to $1.4 billion should the drugs prove successful.
Both drugs aim to lower the level of cholesterol-carrying proteins in the blood and reduce the risk of certain cardiovascular diseases developing.
By Denise Roland
Source: MarketWatch
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.
