Sprint Bioscience AB

Servier plans to pay $2.5 billion to acquire Day One Biopharmaceuticals in a deal that will give it access to rare oncology medicines, including the marketed brain tumor treatment Ojemda. The French pharma said on Friday it will pay $21.50 a share $DAWN in cash, marking a 68% premium over Day One’s Thursday closing price. The California biotech went public in May 2021 at $16 a pop. The deal is slated to close in the second quarter and adds to a string of assets that Servier has brought in over the past six months. The deal marks at least the 10th biopharma acquisition so far this year, according to an Endpoints News tracker. Eli Lilly , GSK and Gilead have each forged multibillion-dollar deals this year as they look to expand their pipeline prowess for years to come. The acquisition is one of the largest deals in Servier’s 72-year history, David Lee, EVP and head of the company’s US unit, told Endpoints in an interview. Servier will gain “true leadership” in the brain cancer space with the acquisition, Lee said. Both companies have commercial-stage treatments for certain low-grade gliomas, and both medicines were greenlit by the FDA in 2024. Day One markets Ojemda for certain children with relapsed or refractory pediatric low-grade glioma. Ipsen has the ex-US rights. Servier, meanwhile, has Voranigo , a medicine for certain patients with grade 2 astrocytoma or oligodendroglioma. That also came via an acquisition, when Servier got hold of certain Agios programs in 2022. Ojemda reeled in $155.4 million in 2025, and last month Day One projected $225 million to $250 million in 2026 sales. Lee noted Day One was born after the Cancer Moonshot initiative, and “it was really to serve some of these unmet oncology medical needs.” Servier is run by a nonprofit foundation and he said the companies share “common DNA” through a focus on patients and innovation. In addition to Ojemda, Servier will gain two antibody-drug conjugates, which have been one of the most prized modalities in oncology drug development over the past few years. Day One got both of its ADCs through deals since the company doesn’t have a research department, CEO Jeremy Bender noted in an interview with Endpoints on the sidelines of the JP Morgan healthcare confab in January. “We’re just building muscle: building the muscle to continue to address persistent, urgent medical need in oncology,” Bender said in January. At the time, he outlined a vision for potentially building out a research organization, but that evolution was “still a ways out.” A week prior to the January interview, Day One completed its $129 million upfront acquisition of Mersana Therapeutics and its ADC called Emi-Le. The treatment candidate is in Phase 1 testing for adenoid cystic carcinoma. Emi-Le and Ojemda should eventually get Day One to $1 billion in revenue, Bender said at the time. Day One’s other ADC came in a 2024 deal with Shanghai-based MabCare Therapeutics . That investigational drug, codenamed DAY301 , targets PTK7 and is in Phase 1 for certain solid tumors. Day One has also done collaborations with startups like Sprint Bioscience and others.

Plus, news about Nuvalent and Phrontline: 🟢 FDA clears Sarepta’s next step: Sarepta said it will study its Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy Elevidys with a new immune suppression regimen as part of the eighth cohort of the ENDEAVOR study. Patients will receive an immunosuppressant called sirolimus as part of their treatment. The cohort will include 25 non-ambulatory patients, who are generally older and have more progressive disease. The goal is to cut the risk of liver injury with the gene therapy after two non-ambulatory boys died earlier this year from liver failure after getting Elevidys. Sarepta expects to have primary endpoint data in the second half of next year, after which it will discuss the potential for resuming Elevidys for non-ambulatory patients with the FDA. The FDA recently updated the gene therapy’s label to remove the indication for those patients. — Lei Lei Wu 🤝 Gilead buys preclinical cancer program for $14M: The program goes after a DNA repair enzyme called TREX1, and was developed by Swedish biotech Sprint Bioscience. Gilead will pay Sprint $14 million upfront in a deal with additional payments worth up to $400 million. — Lei Lei Wu 💰 Nuvalent closes $500M raise: The funds come after Nuvalent reported Phase 1/2 data for its ALK inhibitor, known as neladalkib, last week in a genetically driven form of lung cancer. The drug is being tested in a Phase 3 study comparing it to Roche’s Alecensa in previously untreated patients with ALK-positive NSCLC. — Max Gelman 🇨🇳 Chinese startup Phrontline nabs $60M: The raise, which is described as a “Pre-A+ financing round,” will help the company push forward its bispecific antibody research. One of its lead programs, called TJ101, targets EGFR and B7-H3. — Max Gelman

Dive Brief:Gilead Sciences is looking at a new way to attack cancer, buying into a preclinical program from the Swedish biotech Sprint Bioscience.The deal announced Mondaycenters on a target known as TREX1. Research suggests a healthy TREX1 gene can help prevent overactivation of the immune system that leads to conditions such as lupus, but it may also help cancer cells hide from the bodys natural attackers. In oncology, researchers are trying to inhibit TREX1 to unleash anti-tumor immune activity.TREX1 has demonstrated significant potential in the preclinical phase, Sprint Bioscience CEO Johan Emilsson said in a statement. The new agreement calls for Gilead to pay Sprint $14 million up front and as much as $400 million more if the program meets certain clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones.Dive Insight:Gilead has bet billions of dollars on its oncology program, most notably five years ago with the $21 billion buyout of Immunomedicsthat came with the cancer drug Trodelvy. That drug, however, has failedso far to live up to initial expectations while also hitting some research setbacks. In 2024, Gilead said it would no longer sell Trodelvy for bladder cancerafter a study failed to confirm the medicines clinical benefits.At the same time, Gilead is facing increased competition for its cell therapy business. And while the companys HIV franchise has helped it ride out the challenges in oncology, that business faces a great deal of regulatory uncertainty as the Trump administration targets HIV programs.So, Gilead is continuing to look externally for drugs that can eventually provide a business boost. In August, the company announced a $350 million deal to buy Interius BioTherapeuticsand its technology that can genetically modify immune cells inside the body.The latest deal with Sprint gives Gilead yet another new option with relatively little risk, as the vast majority of the proposed payouts are contingent on the programs success. '