Top five Asia biopharma deals: August 2024

Even though much of Asia’s dealmaking has diminished over the last three years, the in-/out-licensing of assets continues to be robust. The old necessities continue, no matter the larger reality: young biopharmas need capital while more established companies need novel drug candidates. All together, the top five August deals total $6.9 billion in potential value. The five Asian companies are: ImmuneOnco, Eisai, Curon, Otsuka, and Multitude.

ImmuneOnco sells rights for two assets to Instil in $2bn deal

Shanghai’s ImmuneOnco raised $50 million in near-term payments and up to $2 billion in milestones in a deal with Instil Bio of Dallas. Instil now owns global rights (ex-China) for two ImmunoOnco assets, PD-L1xVEGF bispecific antibody and an anti-CTLA-4 antibody.

Like most Chinese biotechs, ImmuneOnco has seen its stock price crater, losing 80% of its value so far this year. The company two lead candidates are in Chinese Phase III trials, while the two out-licensed drugs are in Phase Ib/II trials. ImmuneOnco has $72m in cash at its latest report.

The company has 13 candidates, most of them in China clinical trials, a major cost. The Instil agreement will bring in some cash, but ImmuneOnco will probably need more deals to pay for all of those clinical trials.

Eisai Pharma forms $1.5bn discovery partnership with SEED

Japan’s Eisai Pharma will collaborate with SEED Therapeutics, a Pennsylvania biotech, to use molecular glues for targeted protein degradation of proteins that do not have natural targets.

SEED is eligible to receive up to $1.5 billion in a combination of a upfront payment and milestones, plus royalties. SEED will aim its discovery at multiple neurodegeneration and oncology targets, and then turn promising molecules over to Eisai for development and commercialization.

As part of the agreement, Eisai led a $27 million Series A-3 financing for SEED with a first close of $24 million. In 2020, SEED formed an $800 million collaboration with Lilly and met its third milestone in its work with Lilly earlier this year.

Curon Bio sells T-cell engager to Merck & Co. in $1.3bn Deal

Curon Biopharmaceutical, a Shanghai company, out-licensed global rights to one of its clinical-stage bispecific candidates to Merck (MSD) for a very large $700 million upfront payment, plus $600 million in milestones.

Curon’s CN201 is a novel CD3xCD19-targeting T-cell-engager bispecific antibody that is designed to eliminate B cells. The company is currently conducting Phase I and Ib/II trials of CN201 to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia. Curon was founded in 2018 with $150 million in capital. Merck also plans to test CN201 in autoimmune diseases.

The Curon deal is the fourth in-licensing for Merck this year. 

Otsuka acquires Jnana and its rare disease therapy in $1.1bn agreement

Japan’s Otsuka Pharma bought Jnana Therapeutics, a Boston pharma, for $800 million plus up to $325 million in milestones.

Jnana’s lead candidate is a novel therapy for phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare, inherited kidney disease. Jnana’s JNT-517 is a small-molecule inhibitor of SLC6A19 that regulates amino acid reabsorption in the kidney. Besides SLC6A19, Jnana has another four candidates in discovery stage. 

Jnana believes that only a small part of the human proteome has been drugged, so it has built a next-gen chemoproteomics platform, Rapid, that discovers small molecule candidates for highly validated but challenging-to-drug targets. Otsuka said the platform is one of the reasons it was interested in Jnana.

In 2018, Otsuka acquired another Boston company, Visterra, which develops antibody drugs for autoimmune diseases.

Multitude out-licenses tissue factor ADC to Adcendo in $1bn deal

Shanghai Multitude sold global rights (ex-Greater China) for an early-stage ADC to Denmark’s Adcendo in a $1 billion agreement.

The candidate, ADCE-T02, is a Tissue Factor ADC with a Topoisomerase I inhibitor-based linker/payload that is highly differentiated, according to Multitude. ADCE-T02 is just now starting a Phase I trial in Australia, with additional trials planned for the US and EU. Multitude believes the candidate will have a larger therapeutic window, a better safety profile and enhanced response rates than the competition. 

Founded in 2017, Adcendo is a spin-out from The University of Copenhagen and Rigshospitalet. The company was built around an anti-uPARAP ADC that was effective in a CDX model. It has raised $104 million to develop that asset; the Multitude deal seems to be the first in-licensing for Adcendo and the company’s second drug candidate.