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Astellas Announces Status of Acquisition of Own Shares

On March 1, 2023 Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503, President and CEO: Kenji Yasukawa, Ph.D. "the Company") reported the status of acquisition of its own shares as stated below (Press release, Astellas, MAR 1, 2023, View Source [SID1234627921]). The acquisition was implemented pursuant to the provision of its Articles of Incorporation in accordance with Article 459, paragraph 1 of the Companies Act.

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Particulars

Class of shares acquired:　　　　　 Common stock of the Company

Total number of shares acquired:　　15,153,600 shares

Total amount of acquisition cost:　　 29,023,551,450 yen

Period of acquisition:　　　　　　　 From February 7, 2023 to February 28, 2023

Method of acquisition:　　　　　　 Market purchase on the Tokyo Stock Exchange

(Reference)

Details of the resolution at the meeting of the Board of Directors (announced on February 6, 2023)
(1) Class of shares to be acquired:　　　　 Common stock of the Company
(2) Total number of shares to be acquired:　Up to 29 million shares
(Ratio to the total number of shares outstanding [excluding treasury stock]: 1.59%)
(3) Total amount of acquisition cost:　　　 Up to 50 billion yen
(4) Period of acquisition:　　　　　　　　 From February 7, 2023 to March 24, 2023
(5) Method of acquisition:　　　　　　　　 Market purchase on the Tokyo Stock Exchange

Accumulated Company’s own shares acquired through February 28, 2023, pursuant to the above board resolution
(1) Total number of shares acquired:　　　 15,153,600 shares
(2) Total amount of acquisition cost:　　　 29,023,551,450 yen

2seventy bio Announces Pricing of Upsized Public Offering of Common Stock

On March 1, 2023 2seventy bio, Inc. ("2seventy bio") (Nasdaq: TSVT), a cell and gene therapy company focused on the research, development, and commercialization of transformative treatments for cancer, reported the pricing of a follow on underwritten public offering of 10,869,566 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $11.50 per share (Press release, 2seventy bio, MAR 1, 2023, View Source [SID1234627887]). All of the shares in the offering are being offered by 2seventy bio. In addition, 2seventy bio has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,630,434 shares of its common stock at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. The gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, are expected to be approximately $125 million, excluding any exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares. The offering is expected to close on or about March 3, 2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Cowen and Company, LLC and SVB Securites LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

The shares of common stock are being offered by 2seventy bio pursuant to 2seventy bio’s registration statement on Form S-3 that was previously filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 7, 2022 and became effective on November 18, 2022. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the offering was filed with the SEC on February 28, 2023. The final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering will be filed with the SEC and may be obtained, when available, from Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Attn: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, telephone: (866) 471-2526, facsimile: (212) 902-9316, email: [email protected]; Cowen and Company, LLC, 599 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022, by email at [email protected] or by telephone at (833) 297-2926; or SVB Securities LLC, Attn: Syndicate Department, 53 State Street, 40th Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02109, by telephone at 1-800-808-7525, ext. 6105, or by email at [email protected]; or by accessing the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Tempus Announces New Strategic Collaboration with Pfizer to Advance Oncology Therapeutic Development

On February 28, 2023 Tempus, a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and precision medicine, reported a multi-year, strategic collaboration with Pfizer in which the two companies are working together to further AI and machine learning-driven efforts in therapeutic development (Press release, Tempus, FEB 28, 2023, View Source [SID1234646908]). The goal of this collaboration is to more precisely gather insights that will inform novel drug discovery and development in oncology.

Through this collaboration, Pfizer has access to Tempus’ AI-enabled platform and its library of de-identified, multimodal data to uncover insights that will power therapeutic development in oncology. Pfizer also has access to Tempus’ broad range of capabilities that support therapeutic R&D to advance its own oncology portfolio, including AI-driven companion diagnostic offerings and Tempus’ clinical trial matching program, TIME, that rapidly activates studies for patients in communities across the country.

"Pfizer shares our commitment to bringing novel treatments to patients faster, and we look forward to working together to usher in the next generation of oncology therapeutics," said Eric Lefkofsky, Founder and CEO of Tempus. "This is the third strategic collaboration Tempus has established with a global pharmaceutical leader in the last year, as we believe that combining our technological capabilities with pharma’s deep R&D expertise will get us much closer in realizing the full potential of precision medicine."

ImmuneOncia and AprilBio join forces to jointly develop new immuno-anticancer antibody drugs

On February 28, 2023 ImmuneOncia (CEO Kim Heung-tae), a new drug development company specializing in immuno-anticancer drugs, reported on the 28th that it signed a comprehensive business agreement (MOU) with April Bio (CEO Cha Sang-hoon) to establish a strategic cooperation system for joint development of new immuno-anticancer antibody drugs (Press release, ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, FEB 28, 2023, View Source;idx=19 [SID1234643372]).

Through this agreement, the two companies will use ImmuneOncia’s new antibody drug development technology, including ‘IMC-001’, an antibody treatment targeting PD-L1, and ‘IMC-002’, an antibody treatment targeting CD47, as well as April Bio’s proprietary platform SAFA (Serum). We plan to conduct joint research and promote mutual exchanges for the development of immunotherapy drugs using Albumin Fragment Associated (Albumin Fragment Associated) technology .

April Bio’s SAFA technology is an antibody fragment utilization platform that can increase the half-life of recombinant proteins and produce useful new antibody drugs.

Kim Heung-tae, CEO of ImmuneOncia, said, "Through this business agreement, we expect to further strengthen our ability to develop new immuno-anticancer antibody drugs based on the synergy between the two companies."

Sang-Hoon Cha, CEO of April Bio, said, "This agreement has great significance in that the excellence of the SAFA platform technology has been highly evaluated," adding, "Collaboration with ImmuneOncia, which has excellent antibody development capabilities, is expected to greatly contribute to the successful development of new drugs in the future. "I do it," he said.

Half-year ended 31 December 2022

On February 28, 2023 Imugene reported its half-year (ended December 31, 2022) results (Presentation, Imugene, FEB 28, 2023, View Source [SID1234633370]).