May 5 Quick Takes: Turning Point, LaNova in deal for Claudin ADC
Plus AZ’s Farxiga and Ultomiris both meet and updates from Deerfield-Illumina, Argenx, CMS, Janssen and more
In the latest example of a Western biotech reaching into China to gain rights to an innovative program, Turning Point Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:TPTX) is paying Shanghai-based LaNova Medicines Ltd. $25 million up front for most worldwide rights to LM-302, an antibody-drug conjugate targeting CLDN18.2. The deal includes $195 million in milestones, plus royalties, and excludes Greater China and South Korea. LM-302, which Turning Point will refer to as TPX-4589, is in Phase I testing for gastrointestinal cancers. The prevalence of gastric cancer in Asia has spurred a swath of Chinese companies to develop programs against CLDN18.2.
AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NASDAQ:AZN) said Thursday that Farxiga dapagliflozin met the primary composite endpoint of a reduction in CV death or worsening heart failure in the Phase III DELIVER trial to treat heart failure patients with a preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The SGLT2 inhibitor is already approved to treat heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) based on the Phase III DAPA-HF study. It also makes Farxiga the second in its class to show a significant benefit in both heart failure settings after Jardiance empagliflozin from Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY); Jardiance is approved in HFrEF. Detailed data from DELIVER will be presented at a future conference...