On January 24, 2023 Vividion Therapeutics, Inc., (Vividion) a biopharmaceutical company utilizing novel discovery technologies to unlock high value, traditionally undruggable targets with precision therapeutics for devastating cancers and immune disorders, and a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG, reported that current President and Head of Research and Development Aleksandra Rizo, M.D., Ph.D., will assume the role of President and Chief Executive Officer of Vividion and will join the Board of Directors (Press release, Vividion Therapeutics, JAN 24, 2023, View Source [SID1234626485]). Jeffrey Hatfield, current Chief Executive Officer, will transition to the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors at Vividion. Vividion will continue its mission to unlock high value, traditionally undruggable target biology with precision therapeutics for cancers and immune disorders.

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Under Jeffrey Hatfield’s leadership since 2020, Vividion has grown from a small, research startup to a mid-sized successful biotech company with nearly 200 employees. The company is already advancing multiple novel biology, first-in-class programs towards the clinic and has more than a dozen similar pipeline opportunities emerging in early discovery. In his new role, Jeffrey Hatfield will continue to take an active role in the growth and maturation of Vividion towards a clinical-stage company, providing guidance and support on both corporate and R&D strategy.

"It is an incredibly exciting time at Vividion, as we are starting to advance multiple programs from our chemoproteomics platform in the clinic and our research pipeline and strategic partnerships continue to accelerate, said Jeffrey Hatfield. "I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity over the past two years to lead this world-class team at Vividion, and to partner with Bayer to realize our full potential. In my new role as Board Chair, I look forward to continuing to work with the Board and Aleksandra to bring our precision therapeutics to the patients who desperately need them."

"Jeff has been a key driving force behind Vividion’s growth. We are very grateful for his visionary leadership and pleased that he will continue to work closely with us in his new role as Chairman of the Board," said Stefan Oelrich, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG and President of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division. "With Aleksandra as the new CEO, I am certain Vividion will continue to thrive and advance in its mission to bring transformative treatments to patients. We are excited about the future ahead and look forward to working with this highly-respected leader."

Since joining Vividion in 2022, Aleksandra Rizo has been the leader of the company’s Research and Development organization, helping to shape the portfolio and advance the chemoproteomics platform. To aid in the transition to Vividion’s next phase of growth, Aleksandra Rizo has extensive industry leadership experience building a small biotech as well as a deep understanding of how to work and thrive within a large pharmaceutical ecosystem. An accomplished clinician and oncology expert with a true entrepreneurial spirit, Aleksandra Rizo has brought various programs from discovery, through clinical development to submission, a critical skill as the Vividion pipeline matures.

"We have begun our journey to change medicine and remove the boundaries of druggability for a variety of diseases including cancer and immune disorders," states Aleksandra Rizo. "Our programs are nearly all targeting proteins the industry has previously viewed as undruggable and indicate the potential to deliver enormous value to patients, if successful. I look forward to working with Jeff and the Board as we continue to excel in our discovery efforts and transition into a clinical-stage company. I cannot imagine a more exciting time to lead Vividion."

On January 24, 2023 Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALLO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic CAR T (AlloCAR T) products for cancer, reported that data from its Phase 1 UNIVERSAL trial of ALLO-715, an anti-BCMA AlloCAR T product candidate for relapsed/refractory (r/r) multiple myeloma (MM) has been published in Nature Medicine (Press release, Allogene, JAN 24, 2023, View Source [SID1234626484]).

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UNIVERSAL is the first and only allogeneic CAR T study to demonstrate that significant responses can be achieved with a single dose in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. These initial study results published in Nature Medicine reinforce our belief that ALLO-715 can induce deep, clinically meaningful responses in patients with an allogeneic cell therapy. AlloCAR T product candidates may be able to meaningfully reduce the barriers faced by patients with multiple myeloma when seeking to access cell therapy," said David Chang, M.D., Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Allogene.

"While new autologous CAR T therapies are a significant advance for patients with multiple myeloma, challenges inherent to those treatments remain, including manufacturing constraints and out-of-specification product, lengthy vein-to-vein time requiring bridging therapy or prolonged courses of treatment. These groundbreaking results demonstrate the potential for an off-the-shelf cell therapy to be delivered on demand to patients at scale," said Sham Mailankody, MBBS, Clinical Director of Cellular Therapy Service and Associate Attending Physician, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York. "It is my hope that this publication demonstrating significant proof-of-concept for allogeneic CAR T will set the stage for many more advances in the field of cell therapy for myeloma."

The Phase 1 UNIVERSAL study is a dose escalation trial in patients with heavily pretreated r/r MM. The Nature Medicine publication includes data from the first 48 patients enrolled with a data cutoff of October 2021. All patients treated were refractory to their last line of treatment and no bridging therapy was used in this trial. Data demonstrated the ability for an allogeneic CAR T to achieve response rates in line with certain approved autologous CAR T therapies and durable remissions with a manageable safety profile while treating 92% of all enrolled patients and all product manufactured and released as per product specifications.

Updated data from the UNIVERSAL study were presented at the Company’s R&D Showcase in November 2022 and the American Society of Hematology (ASH) (Free ASH Whitepaper) Annual Meeting in December 2022.

On January 24, 2023 Helsinn Group ("Helsinn"), a fully integrated global biopharma company with a track record of over forty years of commercial execution and a strong focus in oncology and rare diseases, and Immedica Pharma AB, a pharmaceutical company focused on commercialisation of rare and specialty care products, reported that the companies have entered an exclusive long-term license and distribution agreement for the commercialisation of two cancer supportive care products indicated for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in core European markets : AKYNZEO (Netupitant-Palonosetron fixed combination) and ALOXI (Palonosetron) (Press release, Helsinn, JAN 24, 2023, View Source [SID1234626482]).

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Under the licence and distribution agreement Immedica will commercialise AKYNZEO in Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, ALOXI in Switzerland, Belgium, Liechtenstein.

Anders Edvell, CEO of Immedica commented: "We are very pleased to have signed this agreement with Helsinn. Side-effects of cancer treatments have a significant impact on the quality of life of these severely ill patients. AKYNZEO and ALOXI are also an important addition to Immedica’s Oncology & Haematology portfolio."

Dr. Melanie Rolli, Helsinn Group CEO, commented: "This partnership will provide important treatment options for CINV across Europe. We look forward to working closely with Immedica in the months and years ahead to ensure more and more patients can access these important supportive care products."

On January 23, 2023 Sandoz, the global leader in off-patent (generic and biosimilar) medicines, reported that it has signed an agreement to acquire worldwide product rights for leading systemic antifungal agent Mycamine (micafungin sodium, Funguard in Japan) from Astellas (Press release, Sandoz, JAN 24, 2023, View Source,%C2%AE%20in%20Japan)%20from%20Astellas [SID1234626466]).

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Closing is anticipated in the course of H1, 2023, subject to standard conditions and regulatory approvals.

Astellas reported Mycamine sales of JPY 18.9 billion (USD 135 million) for the year ending March 31, 2022. The announcement comes after Sandoz successfully completed the acquisition of GSK’s global cephalosporins portfolio in October 2021.

Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor said: "Acquiring this leading and respected global brand will significantly reinforce the Sandoz global hospital offering, as well as complement our existing global leadership position in generic antibiotics."

He added: "This will also be an important addition to our growing portfolio of anti-infective therapies aimed at combatting the spread of antimicrobial resistance, by providing the right drug to the right patient at the right time."

Sandoz Anti-Infectives global medical lead Nicholas Adomakoh said: "Modern medicine is increasingly characterized by the need for complex interventions involving highly vulnerable patients. This welcome and timely portfolio addition will allow us to respond even better to the needs of patients and clinicians across the healthcare continuum."

Mycamine is a leading global echinocandin, one of three major classes of antifungal agents, with a global patient base of well over two million. It is a therapy of choice in hospitals and intensive care units worldwide, a proven prophylactic in hematology and oncology patients, and widely used in organ transplants.

Mycamine is indicated for treatment of invasive candidiasis and espophageal candidiasis, which are currently both on the rise with a higher occurrence of associated hospital outbreaks, as well as prevention of candida and aspergillus infections in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

On January 23, 2023 Clinigen Limited (‘Clinigen’) (‘the Company’), the global pharmaceutical services company, reported the company has entered into an agreement to divest Proleukin (interleukin-2 (aldesleukin)), to Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: IOVA) (‘Iovance’), a late-stage biotechnology company developing novel T cell-based cancer immunotherapies (tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) and peripheral-blood lymphocyte (PBL)) (Press release, Clinigen Group, JAN 23, 2023, View Source [SID1234635196]).

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Terms of the agreement include an upfront payment of £166.7 million, a £41.7 million milestone payment upon first approval of lifileucel in advanced melanoma, and double-digit Proleukin global sales royalties from Iovance to Clinigen. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023, subject to required regulatory approvals and clearances and other customary closing conditions.

The divestment of Proleukin is an important step in Clinigen’s previously stated strategy of increasing its focus on those areas of the pharmaceutical services market where it has a growing and sustainable competitive advantage. Clinigen provides a strong and highly differentiated offering in pharmaceutical services where the platform provides market-leading access solutions from the clinical phase through to the commercial stage of the drug product life cycle.

David Bryant, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Clinigen, said: "Today’s announcement is a significant milestone for Clinigen as it continues its evolution as a business focused on critical high-value pharmaceutical services. The divestment helps accelerate that services focus, while returning value to the business and allowing Clinigen to benefit from potential future economic value in Proleukin.

"We have had a long-standing partnership with Iovance and believe they are the right partner to take Proleukin forward and ensure continued availability of this important medicine to patients and healthcare professionals."

Greenhill & Co is serving as financial advisor and White & Case LLP as legal advisor to Clinigen.