Ligand to buy Apeiron; Roche reports another TIGIT setback
08 Jul 2024
Today, a brief rundown of news from Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Aerovate Therapeutics, as well as updates from Roche and CSL Behring that you may have missed.
Ligand Pharmaceuticals will pay $100 million to acquire the private Austria-based Apeiron Biologics. The deal hands Ligand royalty rights to sales of Qarziba, an approved treatment for high-risk glioblastoma that Apeiron co-developed and later licensed to Eusa Pharma outside of China. Recordati, which acquired Eusa in 2022, now sells the drug. Ligand is also committing to investing up to $4 million in a private spinout of Apeiron called InvlOs Holding. — Ned Pagliarulo
Rare disease drugmaker Aerovate Therapeutics is considering a possible sale, merger or liquidation, the company said Monday. Less than one month ago, the company revealed it was halting testing of an experimental inhaled treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension following negative results in a Phase 2 study. At the time, the company had $100 million in cash and cash equivalents. Shares in the company have plunged by more than 90% this year to trade at less than $2 apiece. — Gwendolyn Wu
A drug combination containing Roche’s experimental “TIGIT” antibody tiragolumab was less effective than Merck & Co.’s Keytruda plus chemotherapy in a Phase 2/3 study of people with previously untreated non-small cell lung cancer, Roche said Thursday. The results are discouraging for the TIGIT class of drugs, analysts said, and weighed on shares of other TIGIT developers Friday. Roche, which is awaiting results later this year from a higher-profile trial of tiragolumab, is halting the Phase 2/3 study as a result. — Ned Pagliarulo
Two people with hemophilia B were treated with the gene therapy Hemgenix in France, the first time an approved gene therapy for the bleeding condition has been used in Europe outside of clinical trials, according to a Thursday announcement from drugmaker CSL Behring. Intended to be a one-time treatment, Hemgenix replaces a gene that encodes a protein called Factor IX, which the body needs to clot blood. Its original maker, UniQure, licensed Hemgenix to CSL in 2020, but sales have been very slow since its approval. — Gwendolyn Wu
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