On April 7, 2019, XOMA Corporation ("XOMA"), through its wholly-owned subsidiary, XOMA (US) LLC (the "Company"), reported that it has entered into a Royalty Purchase Agreement (the "Royalty Purchase Agreement") with Aronora, Inc., a private research and development company headquartered in Portland, Oregon ("Aronora") (Filing, 8-K, Xoma, APR 7, 2019, View Source [SID1234535038]). Pursuant to the terms of the Royalty Purchase Agreement, the Company, subject to certain customary closing conditions, will purchase from Aronora the rights to potential royalty payments and a portion of the potential milestone payments associated with five hematology drug products in development: three anti-thrombotic candidates subject to Aronora’s collaboration with Bayer Pharma AG ("Bayer"), one of which is subject to an option by Bayer (the "Bayer Licensed Products") and two additional early clinical hematology candidates (the "non-Bayer Licensed Products," together with the Bayer Licensed Products, the "Products").

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Under the terms of the Royalty Purchase Agreement, the Company will make an initial $6 million payment to Aronora at the closing of the transaction (the "Closing Amount") subject to the fulfillment of certain pre-closing conditions contained in the Royalty Purchase Agreement. The transaction is expected to close no later than the 3rd Quarter of 2019, and the Royalty Purchase Agreement will terminate if all pre-closing conditions are not fulfilled within ninety days and the parties do not extend the Royalty Purchase Agreement prior thereto. The Company is required to make an additional $1,000,000 payment (up to a total of $3 million) for each of the three Bayer Licensed Products that are active as of September 1, 2019.

The Company will receive, on average, low single-digit royalties on future sales of the Bayer Licensed Products (net of certain royalties payable to third parties) and 10% of all future developmental, regulatory and sales milestones related to the Bayer Licensed Products payable after the closing of the transaction excluding the payment of any milestone associated with Bayer exercising its option on one of the Bayer Licensed Products. In addition, the Company will purchase from Aronora the right to receive low single digit royalties on potential sales of the non-Bayer Licensed Products and 10% of all future payments, including upfront payments, option payments and developmental, regulatory and sales milestone payments on potential future sales of the non-Bayer Licensed Products. The above percentages will be reduced to 5% upon the Company’s receipt of two times the total cumulative amount of consideration paid by the Company to Aronora.

Pursuant to the Royalty Purchase Agreement, if the Company receives over $250 million in cumulative royalties on net sales per Product, the Company will be required to pay associated tiered milestones payments to Aronora in an aggregate amount of up to $85 million per Product.

The Royalty Purchase Agreement contains customary representations, warranties, covenants and indemnities. The Royalty Purchase Agreement will terminate six (6) months following receipt by the Company of all royalty payments to which it is entitled thereunder. Aronora can terminate the Royalty Purchase Agreement if the Company fails to make payments thereunder in a timely fashion (after the expiration of any applicable cure period).

The foregoing description of the Royalty Purchase Agreement does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the complete text of the Royalty Purchase Agreement, which will be filed as an exhibit to a future XOMA periodic report under the Securities Exchange Act.

On April 7, 2019 WuXi AppTec, a leading global pharmaceutical and medical device open-access capability and technology platform company, reported the appointment of Dr. Frederick H. Hausheer as Chief Medical Officer for the company (Press release, WuXi AppTec, APR 7, 2019, View Source [SID1234535031]).

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In this executive role, Dr. Hausheer will provide medical, scientific and operational leadership to WuXi Clinical operations in the United States, China and other territories. In addition, he will play a key role in forging and maintaining strong connections between our customers and WuXi’s business units by providing inputs on medical and clinical development strategies aimed at seamless integration from preclinical translational research and development into first-in-human studies, as well as for Phase I-IV clinical development plans for our customers.

Dr. Hausheer brings more than 30 years’ experience in global oncology clinical drug development and translational science and medicine in commercial and academic settings. He has extensive experience in translational/IND programs, clinical trial design, commercial clinical development, and involvement in regulatory interactions for novel agents spanning from pre-IND and Phase I-III development in the United States, China, Europe, Japan and other territories.

"We’re very excited to welcome Dr. Hausheer onboard as our Chief Medical Officer," said Mr. Edward Hu, Co-CEO of WuXi AppTec. "Dr. Hausheer’s rich experience in global oncology clinical drug development and translational science and medicine makes him ideally suited to taking this role. We are confident in his leadership to strengthen WuXi’s clinical development capabilities and capacity globally, and enable more customers to develop better medicine faster to benefit patients around the world."

Prior to joining WuXi, Dr. Hausheer held CEO and CMO positions with several Biopharma companies, and was the Founder and Chairman of BioNumerik Pharmaceuticals. He has also served as a business advisory board member to JP Morgan Chase, the Whittaker Institute at Johns Hopkins, and the National Cancer Institute. Early in his career he served on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Experimental Therapeutics Section, the NCI Decision Network Panel, and the NCI Institutional Review Board, followed by extensive involvement in national and international Phase I-III clinical trials involving novel treatments for lung, breast, ovarian and other malignancies.

Dr. Hausheer obtained his MD at the University of Missouri, School of Medicine and then became a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, where he focused on the development of novel experimental therapeutics and pharmacology. He currently holds adjunct professorships at the University of Missouri in Internal Medicine and Oncology and The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in Medical Oncology. He is an inventor/co-inventor on more than 400 issued United States and international patents.

On April 7, 2019 Celltrion (KRX:068270) and the Canada-based iProgen Biotech Inc. reported to agree to partner for the development of novel ADCs against validated antibody targets, including HER21 and CD202 (Press release, Celltrion, APR 7, 2019, View Source [SID1234535030]).

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The terms of the partnership agreement include: (1) Celltrion manufactures and supplies four recombinant antibodies to iProgen, among which two are HER2 and CD20 targeting, selected by Celltrion, and two additional targets to be selected by iProgen, (2) Celltrion provides supports for the Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control (CMC) activities for the IND application and the Phase-1 clinical trial, (3) iProgen conducts the Phase-1 clinical trial using these drug candidates, and (4) upon completion of Phase 1, Celltrion has the right of first negotiation on these drug candidates for global in-licensing.

The antibodies encompassing iProgen’s proprietary delivery technology, Antibody Delivery Enhancing Domain (ADED) is expected to increase anti-tumor efficacy by enhancing the drug delivery and internalization to cancer cells. The ADED technology is applied to anti-HER2 ADCs to potentially treat not only the breast cancer patients with high levels of HER2 expression more effectively but also those with low levels with no approved targeted therapies. In addition to HER2, other tumor antigens may be therapeutically targeted by ADCs that embody this technology.

The representative of Celltrion said, "Celltrion has been searching for novel technologies that could expand the use of existing antibody therapeutics and produce biobetters and next-generation biotherapeutics, in order to bolster its pipeline outside biosimilars and small molecules," adding that "We will keep on enriching our pipeline to include a panel of oncology drugs, as part of the effort to improve patients’ lives worldwide."

On April 5, 2019 NexImmune, an emerging leader in the field of antigen-directed immunotherapy, reported that Scott Carmer, Neximmune’s Chief Executive Officer, will be participating and presenting a corporate update at the following conferences (Press release, NexImmune, APR 5, 2019, View Source [SID1234554954]):

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Jefferies Immuno-Oncology Cell Therapy Summit
Friday, April 5th, 3:05PM ET
Boston, MA

Solebury Trout Private Company Showcase
Thursday, April 18th, 10:50AM ET
Boston, MA

On April 5, 2019 ReNeuron Group plc (AIM: RENE), a UK-based global leader in the development of cell-based therapeutics, reported that Olav Hellebø, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, will present at the H.C. Wainwright Global Life Sciences Conference on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 3:30 p.m. BST at the Grosvenor House in London (Press release, ReNeuron, APR 5, 2019, View Source [SID1234535032]).

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A live and archived webcast of the H.C. Wainwright presentation will be available on the Webcasts & Presentations page of the company’s website at www.reneuron.com.