Feb. 15 Quick Takes: Emergent deal to grow Bavarian Nordic footprint in U.S., Europe
Plus: Maxion raises series A to develop mAbs against ion channels, GPCRs and updates from Arrowhead, Moderna, Galera, Codagenix, Nanite
As part of its bid to become the largest pure-play vaccine company, Bavarian Nordic A/S (CSE:BAVA; Pink:BVNRY) is paying $270 million up front to Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) to acquire a trio of travel vaccines: Vivotif for typhoid fever, Vaxchora for cholera and a candidate targeting Chikungunya, with Phase III data expected in 2H23. Bavarian Nordic said the deal will build its U.S. presence with the addition of R&D facilities and commercial operations, bolster its manufacturing capabilities via the addition of a Swiss biologics facility and increase its scale in Europe. Emergent is eligible for $110 million in milestones.
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ARWR) is planning to conduct a Phase II trial of ARO-PNPLA3 on its own after Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) returned rights to the therapy to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. The pharma held its rights under a 2018 deal; Arrowhead said J&J’s decision stemmed from a strategic portfolio review. New Phase I data showed that the PNPLA3-targeting therapy led to liver fat reductions of up to 40% among patients homozygous for the I148M mutation...