Global Briefs: Astellas, Bayer, BI & More
A roundup of news from the large and mid-sized bio/pharmaceutical companies featuring Astellas, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novo, Novartis, and AbbVie. Highlights below.
For the latest news roundup on small and Emerging Pharma companies, see Biotech Briefs.
Mfg News
* Astellas Expanding Ireland Mfg Facility with New Aseptic Filling Line
M&A News
* Bayer Divesting Oral Cancer Drug to Grünenthal for $429 M
* Novo To Acquire Three Obesity Drug Programs from Kallyope
Partnering News
* Lilly, InnoCare in $3.35-Bn Drug Development Pact
* Roche, Atavistik Bio in $2-Bn Small-Molecule Cardio/Metabolic/Renal Drug Pact
* BI, Envisagenics in $1-Bn AI-Based RNA Drug-Discovery Pact
* Novartis, China’s BoomRay Therapeutics in $900-M Radiopharma Pact
* BI, Variant Bio in $250-M AI-Based Cardio Drug Pact
* AbbVie, Iambic in Small-Molecule AI-Enabled Drug-Discovery Pact
General
* Roche Opens New Innovation Center in Boston
ESG News
* Novo, Unicef Partner for Childhood Obesity
Mfg News
Astellas Expanding Ireland Mfg Facility with New Aseptic Filling Line
Astellas Ireland has announced an expansion of its bio/pharmaceutical manufacturing facility at the Kerry Technology Park in Tralee, Ireland. The investment will support the installation of a second aseptic filling line and associated manufacturing infrastructure. The project will double drug-product manufacturing capacity at the Tralee facility, creating additional roles across engineering, production, quality, logistics and support functions by 2029.
This follows the company’s previously announced EUR 330 million ($376 million) investment in a new bio/pharmaceutical facility and second facility in Kerry in 2023. The new Kerry facility is scheduled to open in early 2027.
Source: IDA Ireland
M&A News
Bayer Divesting Oral Cancer Drug to Grünenthal for $429 M
Bayer and Grünenthal, an Aachen, Germany-based bio/pharmaceutical company focused on drugs pain management have entered an agreement under which Grünenthal will acquire Bayer’s Stivarga (regorafenib), an oral treatment for specific advanced cancers, for up to EUR 375 million ($429 million). Stivarga is an oral multi-kinase inhibitor indicated for metastatic colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumors in patients who have already been treated with, or who cannot be given, other available treatments. It is approved and available in more than 90 markets worldwide.
Loss of exclusivity for Stivarga is anticipated in 2029 in the EU and in 2030 in the US. Grünenthal estimates that Stivarga may contribute a positive impact on its consolidated EBITDA of up to approximately EUR 100 million ($114 million) for 2027, based on an analysis of the information made available to Grünenthal from Bayer and assuming closing by the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027, as well as a full-year consolidation.
The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the relevant regulatory authorities. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
Source: Grünenthal
Novo To Acquire Three Obesity Drug Programs from Kallyope
Novo has announced an asset purchase agreement to acquire three obesity drug development programs initiated by Kallyope, a New York-based bio/pharmaceutical company, according to Jacob Petersen, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Research at Novo, who disclosed the deal in a September 18 LinkedIn post.
The programs target non-incretin approaches to obesity and include a peptide program, a follow-on small molecule program directed to a novel target, and another small-molecule receptor agonist program in lead optimization. The lead peptide-based candidate, K-554, is investigational new drug filing-ready.
Source: Novo
Partnering News
Lilly, InnoCare in $3.35-Bn Drug Development Pact
Eli Lilly and Company and InnoCare Pharma, a Beijing-based bio/pharmaceutical company focusing on the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, have entered into a strategic research collaboration and license agreement to develop new medicines, in a deal worth up to $3.35 billion ($100 million upfront and $3.25 billion in milestone payments).
InnoCare will apply its drug-discovery platform and research experience to discover and advance compounds against up to five targets.
Under the agreement, InnoCare will be eligible to receive up to $100 million in upfront and near-term payments, and up to approximately $3.25 billion in development and commercial milestone payments. In addition, InnoCare will be eligible to receive single-digit tiered royalties based on annual net product sales.
Source: InnoCare
Roche, Atavistik Bio in $2-Bn Small-Molecule Cardio/Metabolic/Renal Drug Pact
Roche and Atavistik Bio, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based clinical-stage bio/pharmaceutical company focused on hematology, have entered into a strategic research collaboration to discover and develop small-molecule therapeutics against multiple targets for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic (CVRM) diseases, in a deal worth up to $2 billion ($70 million upfront and $1.9 billion in milestone payments).
The collaboration will apply Atavistik Bio’s drug-discovery platform and expertise in allosteric drug discovery to identify functional binding pockets and advance selective small-molecule therapeutics against targets for CVRM diseases.
Under the agreement, Atavistik Bio will be responsible for discovery and research activities for the collaboration targets, with Roche responsible for further preclinical and clinical development, regulatory, and commercialization activities.
Atavistik Bio will receive an upfront payment of $70 million and may be eligible to receive additional research, development, and commercial milestone payments of up to $1.9 billion, and tiered royalties on future net sales of any approved medicines resulting from the collaboration.
Source: Atavistik Bio
BI, Envisagenics in $1-Bn AI-Based RNA Drug Discovery Pact
Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) and Envisagenics, a company applying AI-driven analysis of RNA splicing, have announced a multi-year research collaboration and option agreement for the development of precision therapies for treating solid tumors, in a deal worth up to $1 billion.
The collaboration builds on targets previously identified through Envisagenics’ SpliceCore platform and will further validate their therapeutic potential across multiple therapeutic modalities, including antibody-drug conjugates, T-cell engagers, and multispecific antibodies. Upon successful completion of the research program, BI will have the option to exclusively license selected targets for further development and commercialization.
Envisagenics is eligible to receive more than $1 billion in potential payments, including an upfront payment, research funding, option fees and development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus royalties on future product sales.
Source: Envisagenics
Novartis, China’s BoomRay Therapeutics in $900-M Radiopharma Pact
Novartis and Boomray Pharmaceuticals, a Suzhou, China-based clinical-stage bio/pharmaceutical company focused on radioligand therapies (RLTs), have entered into an exclusive global license agreement for an undisclosed preclinical RLT asset, in a deal worth up to $900 million.
Under the agreement, BoomRay will be eligible to receive up to $900 million, including an upfront payment as well as development, regulatory, and sales milestone payments. In addition, royalties may be earned on future global net sales.
Source: BoomRay Pharmaceuticals
BI, Variant Bio in $250-M AI-Based Cardio Drug Pact
Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) and Variant Bio, an AI-enabled drug-discovery company, have announced an expansion of up to $250 million of their multi-year research collaboration and license agreement.
Building on the companies’ work in kidney disease, the collaboration will apply Variant Bio’s Inference platform to discover and validate targets for cardiovascular disease. The AI-enabled platform conducts end-to-end genomic analysis using proprietary genomic, deep-phenotyping, and multi-omic data from studies involving diverse populations worldwide.
Under the expanded agreement, Variant Bio will receive an additional upfront payment and is eligible for potential license and milestone payments totaling over $250 million.
Source: Variant Bio
AbbVie, Iambic in Small-Molecule AI-Enabled Drug-Discovery Pact
AbbVie and Iambic, a clinical-stage bio/pharmaceutical company developing medicines through its AI platform, have announced a multi-year collaboration to accelerate the discovery and development of small-molecule therapies across immunology, neuroscience, and oncology.
The companies will use Iambic’s AI platform to improve the efficiency and success of identifying promising new drug candidates. The collaboration will utilize Iambic’s multimodal transformer model that combines biomedical data modalities from across the drug-discovery process and enables many drug design hypotheses to be tested in parallel and at scale. The platform is designed to achieve prediction accuracy across drug discovery and development and is trained on over 6,000 molecular properties.
Source: AbbVie
General
Roche Opens New Innovation Center in Boston
Roche’s Genentech has opened a new Innovation Center in Boston, which will be focused in cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases, and expands Roche and Genentech’s US research presence. The center is part of Genentech’s $50-billion US capital investment plan.
Located at Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus in the Allston section of Boston, the center brings together scientists from across discovery research, clinical development, AI and data-science disciplines, and creates an end-to-end research environment spanning early-stage discovery through late-stage clinical development.
Roche and Genentech have signed a 10-year lease for the 95,000-square-foot-center, which will have capacity for up to 500 individuals across research, clinical development, data science, and other areas.
Source: Roche
ESG News
Novo, Unicef Partner for Childhood Obesity
Novo and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a United Nations agency focused on providing aid to children, have announced a four-year expansion of their global partnership to help prevent childhood overweight and obesity.
Novo is committing $18 million from 2026 to 2030 to advance policies and prevention services in seven priority countries. From 2026 to 2030, the partnership will support governments to create environments that ensure healthier options are more accessible to children and families.
Source: Novo Nordisk
