Teva has agreed to bid up to $125 million for BioXcel Therapeutics' neuroscience assets, including marketed agitation treatment Igalmi (dexmedetomidine), as the struggling biotech enters Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Teva will serve as the stalking-horse bidder in a court-supervised auction for substantially all of BioXcel's assets. Under the agreement, Teva would pay $57.5 million upfront for worldwide rights to the assets, with up to another $67.5 million in contingent payments. The latter includes

ProFound Therapeutics has received up to $35 million in backing from the Gates Foundation, including an initial $20 million, to use its proteomics and AI platform to identify drug targets and biomarkers for preeclampsia and eclampsia. The Flagship Pioneering-founded biotech will analyse proteins found in the placenta and serum of women with the pregnancy complications. "The expanded proteome represents a vast and largely untapped resource for identifying novel protein drugs, drug targets," said

SK Biopharmaceuticals has strengthened its epilepsy offering by paying $350 million upfront to help speed Biohaven’s Kv7 ion channel activator on its way to market. Biohaven is currently evaluating the daily oral therapy, called opakalim or BHV-7000, in a phase 2/3 study of patients with focal epilepsy. A topline readout is expected later this year. Rather than wait for the results, SK has agreed to hand over the upfront cash—along with another $50 million next year—for the worldwide license t

Biohaven on Wednesday said it’s selling the rights to its most advanced experimental medicine to South Korea’s SK Biopharmaceuticals in a deal that may be worth as much as $795 million plus future royalties. The transaction includes access to Biohaven’s Kv7 ion channel technology and the lead asset to emerge from that platform, a treatment for focal epilepsy called opakalim. The drug is currently in late-stage testing, and topline results from a trial called Rise3 are due before the end of the

Charles River Laboratories (CRL) and Taiwan-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics are teaming up to prep Medigen’s multivalent enterovirus vaccine for global expansion. The collaboration is designed to characterize and validate the virus seed bank for Medigen’s vaccine and will leverage CRL’s analytical platforms, according to a Thursday release . CRL’s Next-Generation Sequencing will support the chemistry, manufacturing and controls steps to advance the vaccine program, including Medigen’s Envacgen

Roche’s Genentech is paying DualityBio $45 million upfront for rights to antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) designed for the growing pool of patients who progress after treatment with the modality. The deal is worth more than $1 billion in potential milestones. Approved ADCs such as AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu and Gilead’s Trodelvy deliver cytotoxic topoisomerase inhibitors to cells that express certain receptors. As the ADCs move into earlier lines of therapy—Enhertu and Trodelvy are

Leo Pharma on Tuesday said it will acquire the rights to dersimelagon, an experimental medicine from that’s undergoing Food and Drug Administration review, in a deal potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars. If approved, the medicine would be the first oral treatment for two skin conditions known as erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-linked protoporphyria, Leo said. The rare genetic diseases cause severe reactions to the sun; patients can experience burning sensations, rashes, swellin

Eli Lilly has tapped OmniAb and its antibody discovery engine for an ion channel-focused collaboration. While the deal is light on details, the California-based research firm will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and is eligible for up to $370 million in R&D and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties. The licensing agreement covers a new ion channel programme with an undisclosed target and modality, though it's likely to be antibody-based given OmniAb specialises in antibody discove

Khartis said the financing would support its pipeline of oral small molecule medicines targeting immunology pathways. Credit: Maryia Blizniakova/Shutterstock.com. Armed with $95m in funding and a former Pfizer drug discovery specialist, Khartis Therapeutics has emerged with the aim of bringing a new treatment for an autoimmune disease that causes eye inflammation. Unveiling itself via a $50m Series B raise announcement, Khartis said its pipeline includes oral small-molecule medicines with both

Aizen Therapeutics inked a multi-programme collaboration with an undisclosed, publicly listed San Diego-based biotech to design oral peptide therapeutics. The deal, announced over the weekend, grants Aizen several million in initial revenue, alongside milestone payments of up to $100 million for each chosen target. The latest partnership will employ Aizen's DaX foundation model to develop oral peptides targeting conditions across immunology and neurology. According to the AI-native firm, DaX —