On February 11, 2021 Biogen Inc. ("Biogen") (Nasdaq: BIIB) reported the expiration date results of its previously announced private offer to exchange (the "Exchange Offer") any and all of its outstanding 5.200% Senior Notes due 2045 (the "Old Notes"), totaling $1.75 billion in aggregate principal amount, for a new series of 3.250% senior notes due 2051 to be issued by Biogen (the "New Notes") and cash on the terms and subject to conditions set forth in the Offering Memorandum dated February 4, 2021 (the "Offering Memorandum") and the accompanying eligibility letter (the "Eligibility Letter"), Canadian beneficial holder form and notice of guaranteed delivery (collectively, the "Exchange Offer Documents") (Press release, Biogen, FEB 11, 2021, View Source [SID1234574947]).

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The Exchange Offer expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on February 10, 2021 (the "Expiration Date"). The "Settlement Date" will be promptly following the Expiration Date and is expected to be February 16, 2021.

The following table sets forth the aggregate principal amount of Old Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn at or prior to the Expiration Date, including the aggregate principal amount tendered pursuant to the guaranteed delivery procedures described in the Offering Memorandum at or prior to the Expiration Date, which Biogen expects to accept on the Settlement Date in connection with the Exchange Offer.

(1) Excluding Old Notes tendered pursuant to guaranteed delivery procedures.

These amounts are based on information provided by the Exchange Agent (as defined below) as of the Expiration Date. Upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Exchange Offer Documents, on the Settlement Date, Eligible Holders (as defined below) who (i) validly tendered and did not validly withdraw Old Notes at or prior to the Expiration Date or (ii) delivered a valid notice of guaranteed delivery and all other required documents at or prior to the Expiration Date and tender their Old Notes at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on February 12, 2021 (the "Guaranteed Delivery Date"), pursuant to certain guaranteed delivery procedures, and whose Old Notes are accepted for exchange by Biogen, will receive the Total Exchange Consideration (as defined in the Offering Memorandum), as well as accrued and unpaid interest on such Old Notes from the last interest payment date to, but excluding, the Settlement Date.

Based on the foregoing tenders, Biogen expects to issue approximately $721 million in aggregate principal amount of New Notes, which will mature on February 15, 2051, and will bear interest at a rate per annum of 3.250%, and to pay an aggregate of approximately $156 million in cash as part of the Total Exchange Consideration, in each case assuming that all Old Notes tendered pursuant to the guaranteed delivery procedures will be tendered at or prior to the Guaranteed Delivery Date. Biogen will not receive any cash proceeds from the Exchange Offer. The actual aggregate principal amount of New Notes that will be issued and cash that will be paid on the Settlement Date is subject to change based on deliveries under the guaranteed delivery procedures and final validation of tenders.

Biogen will deliver New Notes and cash in exchange for Old Notes accepted for exchange in the Exchange Offer on the Settlement Date. Interest on the Old Notes accepted for exchange in the Exchange Offer, including those tendered pursuant to the guaranteed delivery procedures, will cease to accrue on the Settlement Date. Interest on the New Notes will accrue from the Settlement Date.

Biogen also announced today the expiration date results of its separate cash tender offer (the "Cash Offer"), made only to Ineligible Holders (as defined below), to purchase Old Notes for cash.

The complete terms and conditions of the Exchange Offer are set forth in the Exchange Offer Documents, which were distributed to Eligible Holders in connection with the Exchange Offer. The conditions to the Exchange Offer have been satisfied as of the Expiration Date.

The Exchange Offer was made only to "Eligible Holders," which are holders of Old Notes that certified that they are "qualified institutional buyers", as that term is defined in Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or that are non-U.S. persons, as that term is defined in Rule 902 under the Securities Act (other than "retail investors" in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, and investors in any province or territory of Canada that are individuals or that are institutions or other entities that do not qualify as both "accredited investors" and "permitted clients"), as more fully described in the Eligibility Letter. All holders of Old Notes who are not Eligible Holders are "Ineligible Holders".

The Exchange Offer and the issuance of the New Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act, under any other federal, state or other local law pertaining to the registration of securities, or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction. The New Notes may not be offered or sold except pursuant to registration or an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and any applicable state securities laws.

Only Eligible Holders who submitted a valid eligibility letter were authorized to receive or review the Offering Memorandum or to participate in the Exchange Offer. For Canadian Eligible Holders, participation in the Exchange Offer was also conditioned upon the completion and return of the Canadian beneficial holder form.

Global Bondholder Services Corporation is serving as the exchange agent and information agent for the Exchange Offer (the "Exchange Agent"). Questions or requests for assistance related to the Exchange Offer may be directed to Global Bondholder Services Corporation (866) 470-3900 (U.S. toll-free) or (212) 430-3774 (collect for banks and brokers), or via e-mail at [email protected]. You may also contact your broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other nominee for assistance concerning the Exchange Offer.

This news release is not an offer to sell or buy or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any of the securities described herein. The Exchange Offer was made solely by the Exchange Offer Documents and only to such persons and in such jurisdictions as was permitted under applicable law and the terms and conditions of the Exchange Offer.

On February 11, 2021 i2O Therapeutics reported a research collaboration with Sanofi to investigate the oral delivery of Sanofi’s Nanobody-based medicines, which are currently administered through intravenous or subcutaneous injections (Press release, Sanofi, FEB 11, 2021, View Source [SID1234574944]).

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Nanobodies – proprietary therapeutic proteins based on camelid-derived immunoglobulin single variable domains – have potential uses in the treatment of a range of serious and life-threatening diseases and are being developed in many therapeutic areas including inflammation, hematology, immuno-oncology, oncology and rare diseases. The research collaboration between i2O Therapeutics and Sanofi will explore a new oral route of administering nanobodies.

"Our mission at i2O Therapeutics is to develop safe and effective oral formulations of therapies traditionally limited to injections and we are excited to partner with Sanofi to advance this mission," said Ravi Srinivasan, co-founder and director of i2O Therapeutics.

"i2O’s ionic liquid platform opens new opportunities to orally deliver biologics, and nanobodies represent an exciting application of this platform," said Samir Mitragotri, co-founder of i2O Therapeutics.

i2O Therapeutics announced seed funding in April 2020, which was led by Sanofi Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Sanofi, and JDRF T1D Fund. The company also announced a strategic investment from Colorcon Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund of Colorcon, Inc. in December 2020.

On February 11, 2021 Notch Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing renewable, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cell therapies for cancer, reported the closing of an oversubscribed U.S. $85 million Series A financing (Press release, Notch Therapeutics, FEB 11, 2021, View Source [SID1234574943]). The financing was led by an exclusively healthcare-focused investment fund, with participation by existing investors Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALLO), Lumira Ventures, and CCRM Enterprises Holdings Ltd., an affiliate of Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM); along with new investors EcoR1 Capital, a undisclosed leading global investment firm, Casdin Capital, Samsara BioCapital, and Amplitude Ventures. Proceeds from the financing will support the continuing development of Notch’s portfolio of iPSC-derived T cell therapeutic product candidates and clinical readiness of the company’s proprietary Engineered Thymic Niche (ETN) platform. The financing will also enable Notch to expand its team to support the company’s future growth, including establishing operations in Seattle, in addition to the company’s existing operations in Vancouver and Toronto.

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"We are gratified to have the confidence of this exceptional group of investors and have them share in our vision that our platform can be game-changing for cell therapies by easing cell manufacturing and broadening their clinical and commercial potential," said David Main, President and Chief Executive Officer of Notch. "The level of interest in this financing round enabled us to far exceed our original capital-raising goals. With this support, Notch is well positioned to support our partners and advance development of our initial cell therapy products for patients with cancer."

Notch is applying its scalable Engineered Thymic Niche (ETN) technology platform to develop homogeneous and universally compatible, stem cell-derived cell therapies. To date, Notch has assembled a world-class scientific team and built a fully integrated, tightly controlled platform for generating and editing immune cells from clonal stem cells to enable development of a broad range of T cell therapeutics. Notch has an existing partnership with Allogene Therapeutics to apply Notch’s proprietary ETN platform to develop CAR-targeted, iPSC-derived, off-the-shelf T cell or natural killer (NK) cell therapies for hematologic cancer indications.

"We have great confidence in Notch’s high-caliber management team and the rigorous science underlying its research programs," said David Chang, M.D., Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-Founder of Allogene and a member of the Notch Board of Directors. "We are impressed by the company’s innovation and accomplishments and pleased to continue our support of Notch as the company advances the development of a new generation of cell therapies for cancer and other immune disorders."

On February 11, 2021 Molecular Templates, Inc. (Nasdaq: MTEM; "Molecular Templates" or "MTEM") reported that it has entered into a worldwide strategic research collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to discover and develop multiple novel therapies designed for specific oncology targets (Press release, Molecular Templates, FEB 11, 2021, https://www.mtem.com/investors/news-events/press-releases/detail/89/molecular-templates-establishes-multi-target-collaboration [SID1234574942]). The collaboration will seek to discover new molecules utilizing MTEM’s next generation engineered toxin body (ETB) platform. ETBs represent a new class of targeted therapeutics that act through differentiated mechanisms of actions including the ability to force receptor internalization, deliver therapeutic payloads, and directly kill targeted cells through the enzymatic inactivation of ribosomes.

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"Bristol Myers Squibb is a leading global pharmaceutical company with a strong oncology franchise and a history of innovation, making them an ideal partner for the discovery and development of novel ETBs for the treatment of cancer," said Eric Poma, Ph.D., Molecular Templates’ Chief Executive and Scientific Officer. "MTEM is excited to be working with Bristol Myers Squibb to focus on discovering and developing new ETBs against promising oncology targets. This collaboration provides further validation of our ETB platform while we continue to advance our wholly-owned product pipeline to offer promising therapeutic options for patients."

Under the terms of the agreement, MTEM will conduct research activities for the discovery of next generation ETBs for multiple targets, of which the first target has been selected by Bristol Myers Squibb. Bristol Myers Squibb will have the option to obtain an exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialize ETBs directed to each selected target. Following the exercise of the option, Bristol Myers Squibb would be solely responsible for developing and commercializing the licensed ETBs.

Bristol Myers Squibb will make an up-front payment of $70 million to MTEM. MTEM is also eligible to receive near-term and development, regulatory and sales milestone payments of up to approximately $1.3 billion as well as tiered royalty payments on future sales.

On February 11, 2021 Monopar Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: MNPR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on developing proprietary therapeutics designed to extend life or improve the quality of life for cancer patients, reported the publication of a peer-reviewed study in the European Journal of Cancer which shows the potential utility of MNPR-101 as a uPAR imaging agent to improve surgical outcomes in bladder cancer (Press release, Monopar Therapeutics, FEB 11, 2021, View Source [SID1234574941]).

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Using Monopar’s proprietary humanized uPAR antibody, MNPR-101, a multimodal imaging probe was developed and tested in vivo in human bladder cancer models. The publication reports that high expression of uPAR in bladder cancer is localized at the tumor periphery, suggesting that using a fluorescent-conjugated MNPR-101 probe might allow surgeons to better visualize the borders of the tumor, potentially resulting in more complete tumor resection and thereby minimizing relapse. Similar approaches have been utilized successfully in the resection of other tumor types, such as breast cancer.

Bladder cancer is often treated with transurethral resection to remove cancerous tissue; however, recurrence can occur in up to 78% of patients within 5 years. Up to 40% of recurrent cases develop muscle invasive disease, which has a poor prognosis and requires complete removal of the bladder. Many patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer unfortunately go on to develop and succumb to metastatic disease.

"This novel MNPR-101 based imaging agent has promising utility in allowing surgeons to easily identify tumor margins during surgery," said Andrew Mazar, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Monopar and a co-author of the publication. "Given the specificity of uPAR expression in bladder cancer versus normal bladder tissue, and its high expression at the border of the tumor, we believe imaging uPAR using MNPR-101 targeting could improve surgical outcomes and potentially reduce recurrence of the disease."

"If confirmed in a clinical setting, an imaging probe based on MNPR-101 could result in a paradigm shift, altering how urologists survey and treat bladder cancer," said Cornelis Sier, PhD, member of the Image-Guided Surgery group at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), and the principal investigator on the study.