PTC faces another Duchenne drug rejection; Coherus sells Humira biosimilar

2024-06-28

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Today, a brief rundown of news from PTC Therapeutics PTC Therapeutics, Esperion Therapeutics and Coherus Biosciences, as well as updates from Sanofi, Lantheus Holdings and Forbion that you may have missed.

Drug regulators in Europe have, for a third time, recommended against renewing the approval of PTC Therapeutics PTC Therapeutics’ Duchenne muscular dystrophy medicine Translarna. The European Medicines Agency panel had been asked to re-evaluate PTC’s application after the European Commission, in an unusual step, rejected its recommendation and suggested it consider data from patient registries and real-world use. That evidence still doesn’t prove Translarna is effective, the panel said Friday. PTC will again seek another opinion, during which time Translarna will remain on the market in Europe. — Ben Fidler

Esperion Therapeutics said Friday it has sold rights to sales royalties in Europe for its cholesterol-lowering pill bempedoic acid to Omers Life Sciences for $305 million. Omers will own those royalties until it’s received 1.7-times its initial investment, after which Esperion will reclaim rights. Esperion will use some of the proceeds to pay off a loan from Oberland Capital, and is still eligible to receive up to $300 million in sales-based milestone payments under a licensing deal with Daiichi Sankyo. — Jonathan Gardner

Coherus BioSciences is selling rights to Yusimry, a biosimilar version of Humira, to Hong Kong King-Friend Industrial for $40 million in cash. The biosimilar is the second Coherus has divested this year as part of a plan to focus its business on branded cancer drugs. It won U.S. approval for its first, a cancer immunotherapy called Loqtorzi, in 2023. — Jonathan Gardner

Sanofi is investing $40 million in Vigil Neuroscience, a biotech developing drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. The deal gives Sanofi an exclusive right of first negotiation to license from Vigil an experimental antibody aimed at the protein TREM2. Vigil has one such medicine in early-stage testing for Alzheimer’s disease treatment. The biotech, which went public in 2022 but has lost much of its value since, said the deal will extend its cash runway into 2026. — Gwendolyn Wu

Lantheus Holdings, a developer of radiopharmaceutical drugs and diagnostics, paid $35 million to acquire rights to what it calls a “radiotheranostic pair” from Life Molecular Imaging. The pair consists of a lutetium-based treatment and a gallium-based diagnostic for prostate cancer, both aimed at the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor. Discovered at the Universities Bern and Basel, the pair was initially developed by Bayer and then licensed to Life Molecular. Lantheus plans to start a Phase 1/2a study of the radiopharmaceutical next year, with the gallium-based agent used as a companion diagnostic. — Ned Pagliarulo

European venture capital firm Forbion has hired former Dyne Therapeutics CEO Josh Brumm to help expand its presence in the U.S. Brumm will serve as a general partner and support Forbion’s current portfolio companies as well as “source new opportunities” in the U.S. and Europe, the firm said Thursday. Though Forbion is based in the Netherlands, about 30% of its investments are in the U.S. and Canada. — Gwendolyn Wu

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