On July 26, 2021 PerkinElmer reported it agreed to acquire BioLegend, a provider of life science antibodies and reagents, for approximately $5.25 billion in cash and stock—the largest acquisition in the buyer’s history—in a deal designed to position PerkinElmer as a leading precision medicine company by accelerating its life science growth within clinical diagnostics (Press release, PerkinElmer, JUL 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234585178]).

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Based in San Diego, BioLegend provides antibodies and reagents in areas that include cytometry, proteogenomics, multiplex assays, recombinant proteins, magnetic cell separation, and bioprocessing, for both academic and biopharmaceutical customers. In addition to its development of antibodies and reagents, the company has developed a complementary portfolio focused on tapping emerging, high-growth areas such as biologics, cell and gene therapy, proteogenomics, and recombinant proteins.

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring our technologies and innovative cultures together to create seamless solutions to push science and discovery forward," Prahlad Singh, PerkinElmer’s president and CEO, said in a statement. "We believe joining our teams presents an incredible opportunity to accelerate discoveries that help life science researchers leverage ever-developing technologies and novel approaches to better understand and fight disease."

Investors responded to the announcement of the BioLegend acquisition by sending PerkinElmer shares up $3.66 (2.23%) to $168 a share as of 11:51 a.m. ET.

Privately-held BioLegend has more than 700 employees based largely in the United States, with revenues that are estimated to reach $380 million in 2022, with revenue growth expected to reach the mid-teens, excluding synergies. PerkinElmer employs about 14,000 people, serves customers in 190 countries, and finished last year with revenues of approximately $3.8 billion.

PerkinElmer and BioLegend have identified immediate revenue synergies that are expected to reach $100 million annually by the fifth year following the close of the deal, but added that no "significant" cost synergies are planned.

Adding to revenue, margin

According to PerkinElmer, the combination of the companies is estimated to enhance its revenue growth and margin by adding $0.30 of adjusted earnings per share in the first full year following the close of the transaction, and more than $0.50 per share in the second year following the close.

In a separate announcement today, PerkinElmer reported finishing the second quarter with net income of $245.93 million, up 79% from $137.162 million in Q2 2020, on GAAP revenue that jumped 51% to $1.229 billion from $811.718 million in the second quarter of last year.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Upon closing of the deal, BioLegend’s San Diego campus will become PerkinElmer’s global Center of Excellence (CoE) for research reagent content development for the combined company. Also, PerkinElmer will add new segments to its existing life science franchise.

PerkinElmer now has a life sciences market within its Discovery & Analytical Solutions Segment that combines its life sciences research and laboratory services markets. In the life sciences research market, PerkinElmer includes solutions such as its reagents, informatics, and detection and imaging technologies for biopharma companies, contract research organizations, and academic institutions.

The company also provides services designed to help customers in the laboratory services market increase efficiencies and production time while reducing laboratory maintenance costs, such as its OneSource laboratory service business.

PerkinElmer said it had secured a full commitment to bridge financing from Goldman Sachs Bank for the cash portion of the purchase price.

Back in 2009, BioLegend agreed to offer immunoassay development and bioanalytical testing based on PerkinElmer’s AlphaLISA assay technology, through a collaboration of undisclosed value.

"We are very excited to join the PerkinElmer family. The combination will afford us the opportunity to continue to build on our two-decade foundation of innovative science and scale in new and highly attractive PerkinElmer areas such as clinical diagnostics and food safety testing," added Gene Lay, BioLegend’s founder, president, and CEO. "The BioLegend team is eager to enter this new chapter with PerkinElmer, furthering our mission of enabling legendary discovery from research to cure."

On July 26, 2021 MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; NASDAQ: MOR) reported an update of its financial guidance for 2021 after preliminary completion of the latest evaluation of MorphoSys’ half year 2021 financial performance (Press release, MorphoSys, JUL 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234585177]).

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Based on the preliminary unaudited consolidated results for the first six months 2021, MorphoSys now expects Group revenues in the range of € 155 to € 180 million (previously: € 150 to € 200 million, provided on March 15, 2021 and reiterated on May 5, 2021). The updated revenue guidance primarily reflects updated Monjuvi product sales expectations.

MorphoSys now expects Group operating expenses, which is comprised of R&D and Selling, as well as General & Administrative expenses, in the range of € 435 to € 465 million (previously: € 355 to € 385 million). R&D expenses now are expected to comprise 52 to 57% of Group operating expenses (previously 45-50%), excluding one-time transaction-related costs. The updated guidance for Group operating expenses mainly reflects the acquisition of Constellation Pharmaceuticals (Constellation), which was completed on July 15, 2021. The revised Group range also includes one-time transaction costs of € 36 million, related to the agreements with Constellation and Royalty Pharma.

As a result of the updated Monjuvi product sales expectations, the balance sheet position "Financial Liabilities from Collaborations, Net of Current Portion" is reduced from € 547.6 million (balance as of March 31, 2021) to € 445.9 million (balance as of June 30, 2021). The balance in "Financial Liabilities from Collaborations, Net of Current Portion", reflects an accounting view of expected profits from the net product sales of Monjuvi in the U.S. in the r/r DLBCL setting owed to our partner Incyte. The reduction in Financial Liabilities from Collaborations has no impact to cash.

Full results will be published as planned on July 28, 2021.

On July 26, 2021 Champions Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSBR), a leading global oncology technology solutions provider that is transforming drug discovery through innovative pharmacology, biomarker, and data platforms, reported an expansion of its corporate strategy as they unveil their entry into the drug discovery and development space (Press release, Champions Oncology, JUL 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234585175]). Champions is organized as a dynamic ecosystem of business units centered around a world leading oncology research center that is based off a unique & proprietary set of data and experimental platforms. The corporate composition of the company includes three business units (1) the foundational Research Services Business, (2) the recently launched Research Software Business with its flagship product, Lumin Bioinformatics, and (3) the newly announced Discovery and Innovation Business.

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The rollout of the discovery and innovation business is the natural evolution for Champions as it continues to unlock the value contained within the rare dataset that has been amassed over the past twelve years. The tumor bank, and the dataset that has been derived, are unique for several reasons. First, unlike most other tumor models used in research, Champions’ PDX models are highly representative of tumors present within a clinical setting. Thus, the datasets established using Champions’ models provide more accurate and relevant insights. Second, the approach of using a ‘living tumor bank’ of PDX models provides for a perpetual source of tumor, enabling a continuous and deep level of characterization. Specifically, Champions’ scientists can establish multiple drug response datasets from the same tumor or re-interrogate these tumors with newly approved drugs or drug combinations. This also allows for a full characterization of the molecular nature of these tumors using multiple analytical methods. As new technologies emerge or are optimized, such as proteomic analysis, it is also possible to acquire and integrate this new data into the existing dataset. Third, by leveraging a ‘living tumor bank’ of PDX models, it is possible to manipulate these tumors and simulate important therapeutic or molecular scenarios that are otherwise unavailable in other tumor models.

To demonstrate the combined power of the Company’s proprietary dataset and the full power of the analytical tools present within the Lumin Analytic Engine, Champions has built in-house computational target discovery expertise to identify and prioritize novel therapeutic targets. This approach relies heavily on AI and machine learning algorithms. Computational approaches have emerged as a central mechanism for target discovery in recent years, but often suffer from the use of incomplete or misleading datasets. Champions’ computational approach leverages a more complete data set that is derived from tumor models with a more authentic tumor cell biology and heterogeneity. As a result, the computational teams at Champions can identify targets that are often overlooked or missed when using other datasets. The extensive pre-clinical platform available at Champions’ research facilities also allows for a quick and efficient experimental validation.

The areas of focus for Champions’ therapeutic target discovery include, amongst others, immune modulation, cell surface proteins for drug conjugates, and intracellular ligases and kinases that are required for tumor cell survival. Some of the targets that have been validated exploit the intact and complex metabolic, inflammatory and ubiquitin pathways, as well as a more representative global protein expression level, present within Champions’ tumor models. Programs that have been established around these targets leverage various therapeutic modalities, including both small and large molecule approaches. The commercial strategy for each program will vary, and can include independent development, co-development, or out-licensing.

Ronnie Morris, MD, President and CEO, said "It’s amazing to have reached the point where we see the full realization of our business model. As you know, the foundational core of the Champions business is the proprietary dataset which we have amassed over the last decade. On top of this core, we developed a set of market-leading technology-enabled platform services which fueled our becoming a fast growing & profitable company. Last year we released our software solution, Lumin Bioinformatics, which allows our customers a new way to access & search insights in our datasets. And now, we are excited to unveil discovery and innovation. The synergy of these three vibrant business units allows us to leverage our core in higher value and higher margin businesses that would accelerate our revenue and long-term profit growth."

"Drug discovery and development is the natural next step for Champions," said Michael Ritchie, PhD, MBA, Chief Commercial Officer at Champions Oncology. "We have established such a strong leadership position in delivering the highest quality of science over the years. When we coupled that with our unparalleled dataset and our newly built computational capabilities, we saw the potential to be transformative in drug development. I am amazed every day at what our drug discovery teams are delivering and look forward to seeing these programs mature towards the clinic."

On July 26, 2021 Allarity Therapeutics A/S ("Allarity") and Lantern Pharma Inc. ("Lantern") reported that they have entered into an exclusive agreement under which Lantern will reacquire global rights to Irofulven ("LP-100") and assume full authority to manage and guide future clinical development and commercialization (Press release, Allarity Therapeutics, JUL 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234585174]).

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Irofulven is a well-studied small molecule that causes bulky single strand DNA adducts that cause DNA damage in cancer cells, which can only be repaired by the transcription coupled nucleotide excision repair (TC-NER) pathway. This DNA modification stalls RNA polymerase II leading to transcription and cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in certain types of cancer cells. The drug was originally developed by MGI Pharma (USA) and Eisai (Japan), through Phase 3 clinical trials. Allarity acquired global exclusive rights to the drug through a license from Lantern in 2015 and initiated a Phase 2 clinical trial in Denmark aimed to benefit late-stage, metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients. Lantern plans on pursuing further development and advancement of the drug candidate immediately.

Allarity has previously developed and retrospectively validated a companion diagnostic for Irofulven, using its DRP technology, which was utilized to select and enroll mCRPC patients in its Phase 2 clinical trial at sites in Denmark. Based, in part, upon early results (unpublished) of that trial (NCT03643107) Lantern has decided to reacquire the Irofulven program and will review the potential to advance clinical development of Irofulven in both bladder and prostate cancer patients who have a key mutation in the ERCC2/3 genes (excision repair cross-complementation group 2/3 genes). The genes encode a crucial TC-NER pathway protein (helicase subunit XPB) necessary for DNA damage repair, and it is postulated that patients having tumors harboring the ERCC2/3 gene mutations, and thus lacking the crucial DNA damage repair protein, may be more responsive to treatment with Irofulven.

Under the agreement, Lantern will purchase assets and reacquire global, exclusive rights to further develop and commercialize Irofulven, and Allarity will discontinue further involvement in the Irofulven program. Allarity will provide Lantern with existing, clinical grade drug inventory, manufacturing trade secrets and know-how, and certain data from Allarity’s current Phase 2 clinical study in mCRPC, along with a developed clinical protocol for the intended ERCC2/3 study. Lantern will also receive a license to utilize, in its sole discretion, Allarity’s Irofulven DRP companion diagnostic in future clinical development and commercialization of the drug. Allarity will receive an upfront payment from Lantern, development and regulatory milestone fees, which payments together total, if all milestones (including regulatory marketing approval in the U.S. and EU) are met, up to approximately U.S. $18 million, and tiered royalties on future sales of Irofulven. Further financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Steve R. Carchedi, CEO of Allarity Therapeutics, commented "We are pleased to announce this promising agreement with Lantern Pharma, in order to build on our prior efforts to explore the clinical potential of Irofulven and advance the value of this pipeline asset. Providing Irofulven to selected patients with tumors harboring the ERCC2/3 mutations and resulting DNA damage repair defect represents a novel approach to potentially increasing the therapeutic benefit of Irofulven. Our agreement with Lantern on this program enables Allarity to remain focused on its top priority programs, while at the same time leveraging Lantern’s resources, expertise, and commercial position to continue clinically advancing Irofulven."

Panna Sharma, CEO of Lantern Pharma, further commented "Irofulven has the potential to have a key position in helping extend survival in bladder and metastatic prostate cancers, and potentially other cancers that harbor mutations in ERCC2/3 and other related genes. This program is very synergistic with our other drug candidates that are also focused on DNA damage repair and the NER pathway. Most importantly Irofulven has the potential to be an important compound for several challenging cancers that are impacting patients globally. We are looking forward to advancing and expanding the Irofulven program using our data-driven and precision approach aimed at future patient benefit from this therapy."

On July 26, 2021 Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AUPH / TSX: AUP) (the "Company") reported that it will release its second quarter 2021 financial results on Thursday, August 5, 2021, after the markets close (Press release, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, JUL 26, 2021, View Source [SID1234585173]). Aurinia’s management team will also host a conference call at 4:30 p.m. EDT to discuss the Company’s financial results and to provide a general business update.

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The conference call and webcast is scheduled for August 5, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. ET. In order to participate in the conference call, please dial +1-877-407-9170 (Toll-free U.S. & Canada). An audio webcast can be accessed under "News/Events" through the "Investors" section of the Aurinia corporate website at www.auriniapharma.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on Aurinia’s website.