Healthcare Roundup – Gilead “pleased” with Tango partnership, expands cancer targets in revised deal; Clovis up 20% on rucaparib data in prostate cancer

医疗保健精选——吉利德与Tango扩大合作,Clovis股价上涨20%
Published on: August 17, 2020
Author: Amy Liu

Gilead “pleased” with Tango partnership, expands cancer targets in revised deal

Saying it is “very pleased” with the productivity of the collaboration thus far, Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) has agreed to expand its 2018 oncology-focused partnership with privately held Tango Therapeutics.

Under the new multiyear agreement, Tango will leverage its proprietary CRISPR-enabled functional genomics target discovery platform to identify novel immune evasion targets, increasing the expected number to 15 from five.

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GILD will have options to secure global rights to all programs directed at these targets over the next seven years. It will also have the right to pay option extension fees for Tango to lead through early-stage clinical development. Tango will have the option to co-develop and co-promote the lead products for up to five programs in the U.S.

The partnership excludes Tango’s lead programs. In addition, it has the rights to identify targets outside the immune evasion space.

Under the terms of the revised deal, GILD will pay Tango $125M upfront, invest $20M in Tango equity, have the option to in-license up to 15 programs over the next seven years for up to $410M per program and pay tiered low double-digit royalties on net sales.

Profits and losses will be equally shared on co-developed and co-promoted products in the U.S. while Tango will be eligible for milestone payments and royalties on ex-U.S. sales.

Clovis up 20% on rucaparib data in prostate cancer

Clovis Oncology (CLVS +19.5%) jumps on more than double normal volume on the heels of additional data from the Phase 2 TRITON2 study evaluating Rubraca (rucaparib) in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients harboring BRCA1/2 mutations. The results, supporting accelerated approval in the U.S. three months ago for this indication, were just published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Confirmed objective response rate (ORR) per independent radiology review was 43.5% – 56.7%. ORR via investigator assessment was 50.8% – 63.4%.

Confirmed PSA response rate was 54.8%.

On the safety front, the most frequent serious or higher treatment-emergent adverse event was anemia (25.2%).

Related tickers: AstraZeneca (AZN +2.3%), Merck (MRK +1.9%)

Liberty Health Sciences in strategic partnership with Seed Junky

Liberty Health Sciences (OTCQX:LHSIF +1.2%) announced a partnership with Seed Junky™ Genetics (‘SJG’), to sell and distribute its world-renowned and potent assortment of award-winning cannabis strains.

SJG is a seasoned California-based pioneer in the cannabis industry, and has developed an unparalleled amount of varieties of genetics and is a leader in cannabis cultivation, excelling in the smokable flower category.

Liberty plans to roll out a variety of SJG products to all of its Florida locations between November and December of this year.

XBiotech up 16% on discovery of COVID-19 candidates

Thinly traded micro cap XBiotech (NASDAQ:XBIT) is up 16% premarket on modestly higher volume in reaction to its announcement that it has identified True Human antibodies, derived without modification from humans, that could potentially be used to treat COVID-19.

It discovered the antibodies in blood samples from people who recovered quickly from the respiratory infection provided by collaboration partner BioBridge Global who is participating in a program to provide convalescent plasma to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients.

Aimed at accelerating advancement of its pipeline, the company is expanding its existing manufacturing and research center in Austin, TX with a new 30K sq. ft. infectious disease R&D facility.

Bristol-Myers Squibb nabs rights to cancer candidate from Dragonfly Therapeutics

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) inks an agreement with Dragonfly Therapeutics for exclusive rights to the latter’s interleukin-12 (IL-12) immunotherapy program, including extended half-life cytokine DF6002, a monovalent IL-12 immunoglobulin Fc fusion protein designed to fight cancer by creating an inflammatory tumor microenvironment.

BMY will be responsible for development, regulatory filings and commercialization of DF6002 and related products worldwide.

Under the terms of the deal, Dragonfly will receive $475M in near-term upfront payments, milestones and 24% royalties on net sales.

A Phase 1/2 study evaluating DF6002 in patients with advanced solid tumors launched last month. The estimated primary completion date is September 2022.

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