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The top 10 M&A targets in biotech for 2022

By Annalee Armstrong

All the biopharma world is talking about right now is M&A. Who’s going to buy? How much are they willing to spend? Who’s going to get bought? Here are our predictions.

Intellia-ONK ink up to $920M pact for 5 CRISPR-edited cancer cell therapies

By Kyle LaHucik

Intellia is on a deal spree. The first-in-human gene editing biotech will receive up to $920 million from ONK Therapeutics in a collaboration agreement focused on CRISPR-edited natural killer cell therapies.

Legend's early-stage CAR-T on FDA hold after single patient dosed

By Annalee Armstrong

A phase 1 trial for Legend Biotech’s CAR-T therapy just got underway last year, and now the FDA has told the company to hit the brakes. Legend announced a clinical hold for LB1901 in a brief press release Tuesday morning.

Eli Lilly has jumped back into bed with ImmunoGen. Several years after terminating an earlier deal, Lilly has struck a new agreement, paying $13 million upfront and committing up to $1.7 billion in total to pick up rights to another antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology.

AC Immune's Janssen-partnered Alzheimer's vaccine spurs tau-attacking antibodies in early-stage trial

By Annalee Armstrong

AC Immune and partner Janssen have found an early-stage Alzheimer’s vaccine spurs induction of antibodies that attack a type of tau, which is believed to tangle up in the brain and contribute to the devastating neurological disorder.

With $1.7T in the coffers, biopharma M&A expected to be 'a different animal' in 2022

By Kyle LaHucik

Goodbye, lackluster 2021, and hello, "buoyant" 2022 for biopharma M&A. Biopharmas have $1.7 trillion to dish out on mergers and acquisitions, and the industry should expect a big year for M&A as big drugmakers must fill "innovation deficits" in their pipelines for the second half of this decade.

NMD pulls in $40M from Jeito-led, Roche-backed syndicate, gaining financial muscle to crack myasthenia gravis market

By Nick Paul Taylor

NMD Pharma has secured cash to muscle into the myasthenia gravis market. With Novo Holdings and Roche Venture Fund joining a syndicate led by Jeito Capital, the biotech has raised 35 million euros ($40 million) to take its lead candidate NMD670 through a phase 2a clinical trial in the indication.

Kallyope, with ex-Merck exec at helm, skirts 'less desirable' public markets with $236M series D

By Kyle LaHucik

When former Merck Chief Development Officer Jay Galeota joined Kallyope in August 2021, the plan was to take the gut-brain axis biotech public. But for drug developers, the stock market has taken a turn down a treacherous path. The biotech has now raised $236 million and will wait for market improvement to launch an IPO.

Larimar kept in limbo as FDA maintains clinical hold on leading candidate

By Max Bayer

The FDA is keeping its clinical hold on Larimar Therapeutic's leading candidate, the company announced Tuesday, as it waits for additional data from the company. The decision has forced the company to reconsider its proposed timelines for additional trials and whether or not more studies will be needed to satisfy regulators.

Vertex's Trikafta pricing central to cystic fibrosis treatment disparities, study says

By Fraiser Kansteiner

Just 12% of some 162,000 people estimated to have cystic fibrosis (CF) are getting Vertex’s pricey triple-combination therapy Trikafta, the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis reports. Still, that figure may be low given the drug’s myriad reimbursement deals last year, plus a pair of recent approval to treat CF in kids younger than 12.

To incentivize organ donations, DaVita offers employees extra PTO

By Conor Hale

For February 14’s National Donor Day, the company said it would extend its paid leave policy to four consecutive weeks for staffers that donate bone marrow, liver tissue or a kidney.

The average nonprofit hospital CEO takes home 8 times more than their hourly workers, Lown Institute finds

By Dave Muoio

Hospital size, type and location all play a role in the pay discrepancies between nonprofit hospital workers and their top executives, according to a Lown Institute analysis that found CEOs receiving up to 60 times more than staff.

Deleting a gene in mice helps delay age-related inflammation

By Kyle LaHucik

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine said caloric restriction in humans over two years led to reduced expression of a certain gene. When they deleted that gene in a mouse model, the mice appeared to experience the benefits of caloric restriction, including reduced age-related inflammation.