Plus, news about PepGen, Lilly, Abcellera, CastleVax and Tracon:
Ideaya and Biocytogen ink deal worth $400M+: At the center of the deal is a bispecific antibody that targets both B7H3 and PTK7. The collaboration is worth $406.5 million, including $100 million in regulatory milestones. Ideaya plans to nominate a development candidate before the end of the year and believes the asset will have both monotherapy and combo potential, particularly with clinical-stage PARG inhibitor IDE161. — Max Bayer
Daiichi Sankyo invests in its ADCs: The Japanese drugmaker is doubling down on the five antibody-drug conjugates it says will be crucial to future growth. The company said it increased quarterly R&D investment into those programs — all partnered with either AstraZeneca or Merck — leading to a 30.5% jump in R&D expenses over the past quarter. The spending clocked in at JPY $100.7 billion ($670 million). The move is in line with a strategy to “intensively” allocate resources to the five DXd ADCs and maximize their value, the company wrote in a filing. — Amber Tong
Eli Lilly expands antibody deal with AbCellera: Under the expanded agreement — the financial terms were not disclosed — Lilly has rights to develop and commercialize therapeutic antibodies arising from the collaboration. The two companies first joined forces in 2020 to discover new antibodies for up to nine targets selected by Lilly. That work led to a candidate who has since been authorized for emergency use for Covid. — Ayisha Sharma
PepGen reveals DMD data from three-patient cohort: The early results show that PepGen’s therapy, called PGN-EDO51, “demonstrated higher levels of exon skipping than previously reported studies with other oligonucleotide therapies at similar PMO dose levels,” the company said. Data come from the low-dose cohort of an open-label study. PepGen said it’s working to start enrolling US and EU patients in a placebo-controlled trial by the end of 2024. — Max Gelman
CastleVax gets $34M from BARDA: The money will help support CastleVax’s intranasal Covid-19 vaccine through Phase 2b studies. CastleVax intends to enroll about 10,000 participants and pit its intranasal vaccine against a “currently licensed” Covid shot. The study’s goal is to determine whether the CastleVax candidate can reduce the number of breakthrough symptomatic Covid-19 infections compared to injectable vaccines. — Max Gelman
Tracon to close: The San Diego company announced it has laid off all employees and will wind down operations. The decision comes less than a month after Tracon said it would seek strategic alternatives in the wake of a Phase 2 failure for its PD-L1 drug. — Max Gelman