Anti-TAU antibody(ProMIS)

Samsung Biologics of South Korea has expanded its partnership with UCB of Belgium, signing a drug substance manufacturing deal for $288 million. UCB of Belgium and CDMO Samsung Biologics of South Korea have expanded their seven-year partnership with a new drug substance manufacturing deal worth 382 billion Korean won ($288 million). Among the drugs Samsung will manufacture for UCB is an anti-Tau candidate to treat progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), which is in early-stage testing. Over the last 11 months, UCB has gained FDA approvals for three biologics—Bimzelx for plaque psoriasis, and Zilbrysq and Rystiggo, both for myasthenia gravis. The new deal, which is the third between the companies, builds on a $42 million contract they signed in 2017 and runs through the end of 2030. The new agreement also allows Samsung to “showcase” its Plant 3, CEO Tae Han Kim, said in a release. The company boasts that it has the largest capacity at a single site than any drug manufacturer in the world. When the fifth plant at the complex is completed in 2025, Samsung will have 784,000 liters of capacity. Last year the company signed two biosimilar manufacturing deals with Pfizer for close to $1.8 billion and another with Novartis for $391 million. With the CDMO industry struggling in 2023, Samsung continued its growth, with revenue coming in at $2.8 billion. While it was an increase of 19% from 2022, it didn’t measure up to the 71% revenue increase from 2022 when the company was busy cranking out COVID products. With new approvals in hand and a plan to pile on several indications for Bimzelx, UCB expects its revenue to grow from 5.25 billion euros ($5.7 billion) in 2023 to a range of 5.5 and 5.7 billion euros ($6.0 to $6.2 billion) this year.

No reasons were given for the decision nor the delays to the merger timeline. Don’t count on the triumphant return of biotech special purpose acquisition company deals quite yet. Despite Wilbur Ross’ own blank check company making one of the first announcements for the sector this year, it turns out that deal has now died. As set out back in January, Aprinoia Therapeutics—a Massachusetts-based biotech focused on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP)—was due to combine with the SPAC Ross Acquisition at an implied fully diluted transaction equity value of $280 million. At the time, the deal was expected to complete in the first quarter of the year. Now, five months after that deadline, Aprinoia instead announced yesterday afternoon that the two parties had agreed to a “mutual termination” of the deal. No reasons were given for the decision nor the delays to the merger timeline. Ross—who served as U.S. secretary of commerce in the Trump administration—had already personally invested $7.5 million through a convertible note, according to the original announcement, with another $12.5 million due to follow if the merger had completed. The plan was for the newly listed Aprinoia to use these funds to bring its lead product, a positron emission tomography imaging tracer for neurodegenerative diseases, through to commercialization in China. With that funding no longer on the table, it’s unclear how Aprinoia plans to progress any of its imaging agents or an ongoing U.S. phase 1 trial of its lead therapy, a monoclonal anti-tau IgG antibody being investigated for Alzheimer’s, PSP and frontotemporal dementia. The most recent funding infusion for the company was a $40 million series C back in 2021. With Aprinoia having made no other announcements since unveiling the SPAC deal, it’s hard to get a sense of the other facts in play. The biotech hadn’t responded to a request from Fierce Biotech for further information at the time of publication. While SPAC deals were a hot ticket for biotechs to go public a couple of years ago, the rush cooled in 2022 as the industry hit tough times. Since then, their use has been more sporadic, although 2023 has seen a steady trickle of merger announcements, with August alone seeing U.K. cell therapy developer Celixir and American Gene Technologies’ HIV-focused unit Addimmune unveiling plans to combine with so-called blank check companies. It’s not unheard of for SPAC deals to fall through. Last year saw both gene therapy developer Amicus Therapeutics and fibrosis-focused Blade Therapeutics admit their blank check routes had hit a dead end.