Hi everyone, I am back with my first deals update of the year. Not too much news to report on from over Christmas, but with the JPM conference kicking off next week, that should hopefully mean plenty of deals to talk about. Let’s see. Here are the top headlines I found from the last few weeks.
➡️ Right on the heels of its IPO, Insilico Medicine is starting the year with an oncology discovery and development pact with French pharma Servier.
➡️ MapLight Therapeutics is the latest biotech to want a turn with Alphabet’s AI spinout SandboxAQ. The neuro-focused company is penning a strategic collaboration meant to develop new therapies for central nervous system diseases.
➡️ Two years after Gilead Sciences secured the first option on Assembly Biosciences’ entire pipeline, the pharma has decided to pick the first fruits from the pact.
➡️ Novo Holdings-backed Windward buys rights to Qyuns’ clinical-stage immunology bispecific in $700M deal
➡️ Swiss cancer specialist FoRx Therapeutics AG has secured US$50m Series A to fund Phase I development of FORX-428, supporting IND, trial execution and clinical data readout by mid-2026.
➡️ Sobi AB has completed the US$1.5bn acquisition of Chinese Arthrosi Therapeutics Ltd. Its lead candidate, pozdeutinurad, a URAT1 inhibitor for gout, is in pivotal global Phase-III trials, with China licensing targeting approval by 2028.
➡️ Alvotech, a Reykjavík-based BioTech company specialising in the development and manufacture of biosimilar medicines, has secured a €100 million senior term loan facility to strengthen liquidity
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