New hires:
Biotech veterans Jeff Jonas and Al Robichaud joined Cure Ventures as partners.
Twist Bioscience named Adam Laponis as its chief financial officer.
Eleven Therapeutics announced Dr. Paloma H Giangrande as its chief technology officer.
Ascension marketing executive Nick Ragone is set to become EVP and chief marketing and communications officer of healthcare company Jefferson next week.
Dr. Ansuman Satpathy joined Wing Venture Capital as a venture partner.
Caribou Biosciences appointed Tim Kelly as chief technology officer.
LenioBio announced Hugh Watson as chief financial officer.
Executive elevations:
Sanofi promoted interim head of the specialty care global business unit Brian Foard to the full-time role and added him to the company’s executive committee.
CVS Health elevated SVP of corporate finance and interim chief financial officer Tom Cowhey to chief financial officer. The company also named Mike Pykosz, CEO of Oak Street Health and interim lead of Health Care Delivery, as president of Health Care Delivery.
Board appointments:
Autolous Therapeutics appointed Robert W. Azelby to its board of directors.
Enveda Biosciences formed a therapeutic advisory board, chaired by Nicholas Saccomano, PhD.
Departures:
Germany-based clinical-stage immuno-oncology company Affimed cut its workforce by 50% and announced its CEO Dr. Adi Hoess has left. Dr. Andreas Harstick was appointed as interim CEO.
Susan Tousi, chief commercial officer for Illumina, left the company to become CEO of startup Delfi Diagnostics. Tousi is the fourth senior executive to leave the genomics company since June.
FDA:
Pfizer and Genmab‘s Tivdak received priority review for cervical cancer from the agency.
Seres Therapeutics received a Fast Track Designation from the agency for its therapeutic candidate SER-155.
The agency rejected Astellas Pharma‘s zolbetuximab for manufacturing issues.
The agency named Elizabeth Jungman as its chief of staff, beginning the role later this month.
Layoffs:
Senti Biosciences said it will cut its workforce by 37%.
C4 Therapeutics will lay off 30% of its staff, or about 45 employees.
Gene editing company Allogene Therapeutics announced it will reduce its workforce by 22%.
Medical device maker Nevro said it would slash its workforce by 5%.
Deals:
Coinciding with the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, a number of Big Pharma companies announced major deals.
GSK announced that it will acquire Aiolos Bio for $1 billion upfront, with up to $400 million in potential milestone payments.
Johnson & Johnson put down $2 billion to eat up more of the increasingly attractive antibody drug conjugate space, acquiring Ambrx Biopharma and its proprietary synthetic biology technology platform.
Merck bought Harpoon Therapeutics in a transaction worth up to $680 million.
Novartis unveiled its acquisition of Calypso Biotech, with an upfront payment of $250 million and potential milestones worth up to $175 million.
Boston Scientific bought Axonics, a medical device company that focuses on urinary and bowel disorders, in a deal potentially worth up to $3.7 billion.
Emergent BioSolutions inked a $236 million contract with the Department of Defense to supply an anthrax vaccine.
Veracyte will pay up to $95 million to pick up C2i Genomics.
As part of a strategic partnership, Bristol Myers Squibb provided Evotec with a $25 million payment to advance its research and drug pipeline.
BioNTech signed a research service agreement with WuXi Biologics, including $20 million upfront and additional potential payments.
Amazon partnered with Omada Health to launch a digital health monitoring program.
Evaluate, a Norstella subsidiary, bought J+D Forecasting, a U.K.-based pharma forecasting solutions company.
Alphabet-spinout SandboxAQ acquired computational chemistry company Good Chemistry.
TG Therapeutics bought a global license to a Car T cell therapy program for autoimmune diseases from Precision BioSciences.
HilleVax and Kangh agreed to an exclusive license for the latter’s hexavalent VLP norovirus vaccine candidate outside of China.
Pharmacy benefit manager Liviniti partnered with weight-loss company Noom’s enterprise unit, Noom for Work, to offer its psychology-based behavioral change for preventive healthcare solutions, including its Noom GLP-1 Companion offering.
PharmAlliance said it acquired Monitorforhire, which will now operate as a division of BioBridges.
Labcorp announced a strategic collaboration with Hawthorne Effect to advance decentralized clinical trial capabilities for pharma, biotech and medical device companies.
Funding rounds:
Kymera Therapeutics closed a $275 million public offering.
Praxis Precision Medicines announced the pricing of a $150 million public stock offering, with an expected close date around January 16.
Gene editing biotech Metagenomi filed for a $100 million initial public offering.
Central nervous system-focused biotech Myrobalan Therapeutics raised $24 million in a Series A funding round.
Clinical trial design startup QuantHealth announced a strategic investment from Accenture Ventures, bringing the company’s total A round amount to $17 million.
LifeSpan Vision Ventures invested an undisclosed amount in Bolden Therapeutics.
Industry news:
Moderna recorded approximately $6.7 billion in product sales last year and reiterated its 2024 expected product sales of approximately $4 billion. The company has planned a return to sales growth in 2025 and expects to break even in 2026.
BioNTech plans to have 10 or more potentially registrational trials by the end of 2024, along with revenues of approximately €3 billion.
Walgreens agreed to pay $360 million to Humana to settle a lawsuit alleging it overcharged for prescription-drug reimbursements.
CRISPR Therapeutics said ViaCyte, a subsidiary of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, opted out of their development partnership for gene-edited stem cell therapies treating diabetes.
In its preliminary Q4 financial results, Illumina reported stronger-than-expected growth and indicated its Grail divestiture is still in the early stages.
Bluebird Bio secured its second outcomes-based agreement with a large national payer for its sickle-cell gene therapy Lyfgenia.
Novartis announced its Scemblix demonstrated superior major molecular response rates versus standard‐of‐care TKIs in a Phase III trial for newly diagnosed patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.
Theravance Biopharma said a Phase 4 trial of its Yupelri treatment for patients with severe to very severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD, failed to meet its main goal.
Clinical-stage biotech Athersys filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and agreed to sell virtually all of its assets to Healios.
On/Go launched LEAN, an AI-supported weight-control program designed through the use of sustainable habit-creation, AI technology and GLP-1 prescription medications.
Alcon posted promising top-line results from two pivotal Phase III clinical trials demonstrating that its investigational eye drops AR-15512 improved tear production in patients with dry eye disease.
Vincerx Pharma announced promising clinical results from a trial for its relapsed and refractory lymphoma treatment, enitociclib, in combination with venetoclax and prednisone.
Kyruus rebranded to Kyruus Health.
