AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's Enhertu looked on track to open a new breast cancer category: HER2-low. Singapore's Tessa Therapeutics grabbed $126 million in a series A to advance its CAR-T programs. Samsung Biologics signed a manufacturing contract with Novartis for the first time. And more.
AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu showed it can work in a group of pretreated patients with HER2-low metastatic breast cancer. The data presentation drew a standing ovation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. The Destiny-Breast04 trial success could open HER2-low as a new breast cancer category, potentially offering a HER2-targeted drug for some patients that have traditionally been grouped as HER2-negative.
2. Betting on both types of CAR-T, Tessa grabs $126M series A to push assets through clinic
Singapore’s Tessa Therapeutics rounded out a $126 million series A to advance its CAR-T pipeline. The company’s lead candidates—one autologous and the other off-the-shelf—target the CD30 protein to treat blood cancer. The money will help Tessa launch a pivotal trial of the autologous option in classical Hodgkin lymphoma.
3. Samsung Biologics ties up with Novartis in $81M contract manufacturing deal
Samsung Biologics has signed an initial $81 million contract manufacturing and development deal with Novartis. It marks the first time the two firms have partnered up. Samsung didn’t disclose which of Novartis’ medicines it’ll be producing. The South Korean CDMO has been rapidly expanding its capacities lately.
4. ASCO: Takeda Oncology ready to stoke partnerships to fire up cancer-fighting pillar technologies
Takeda Oncology is looking for potential partnerships to bolster three main pillars, Takeda’s Teresa Bitetti, president of global oncology, and Chris Arendt, Ph.D., head of oncology R&D, cell therapy and therapeutic area unit, said on the sidelines of ASCO. The first focuses on innate immunity, and the second is built around cell therapy. The Japanese pharma is still actively exploring the third element.
5. Insilico gases up with $60M series D as the race to be the 'Formula One for Big Pharma' continues
Insilico Medicine has raised $60 million in a series D, adding on to the $255 million series C round it pulled off last year. The AI-driven drug discovery shop currently has an AI-discovered med is in a clinical trial, and the company plans to launch later this year what it touts as the first fully automated robotics lab.
The U.S. arm of China’s Qiming Venture Partners has closed its third fund with an oversubscribed $260 million raise. The focus of the fund will still be in early-stage therapeutics and health tech companies in the U.S. and EU. Simultaneously, Qiming U.S. has poached former Atara Biotherapeutics CEO Isaac Ciechanover, M.D., from Polaris Venture Partners.
7. Astellas opens new $100M gene therapy production plant
Astellas has completed construction of a $100 million gene therapy manufacturing plant in Sanford, North Carolina. The 135,000-square-foot facility will support Astellas’ clinical- and commercial-scale production of adeno-associated virus vectors for gene therapy, a field that the Japanese pharma had suffered several setbacks lately but hasn’t given up on.
Other News of Note
8. Spurned by FDA, FibroGen and Astellas' anemia drug Evrenzo finds support from NICE
9. Weight watcher: Innovent catching up with Lilly, Novo Nordisk thanks to phase 2 obesity data
10. High tides: Long-term data ready Takeda for bringing first dengue travel vaccine to market