On January 28, 2025 Commit Biologics ("Commit"), a pioneer in the activation of the complement system to treat cancer and autoimmune disease, reported a €5.5m extension to its seed financing (Press release, Commit Biologics, JAN 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234649913]). The contribution from new investor Korys brings the total seed financing raised since Commit’s launch to €21.5m. Commit emerged from stealth last May, having raised €16m from Novo Holdings and Bioqube Ventures.

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The proceeds of the financing, which will be used to advance the BiCE platform and work towards drug candidate selection, extend Commit’s runway into late 2026.

Commit is developing its Bispecific Complement Engaging (BiCE) platform, which uses single domain antibodies that bind to the complement protein C1q to activate and direct the complement system, a fast-acting and potent part of the innate immune system. BiCE is a modular system that can arm antibodies to direct the complement system in a highly targeted way to selectively kill tumor cells or cells implicated in autoimmune disease.

To execute the plan, Commit has appointed Chief Scientific Officer Mikkel Wandahl Pedersen as Interim CEO. Dr Pedersen is a seasoned R&D executive and scientific leader with over two decades of experience in immuno-oncology and autoimmune disease drug discovery and development. He joined Commit last year after previously serving as CSO of Oslo-based Nykode Therapeutics and Denmark-based Symphogen. Dr Pedersen retains his role as Commit’s CSO.

Dr Mikkel Wandahl Pedersen, Interim Chief Executive Officer, and CSO, of Commit Biologics, said: "This additional financing from Korys, a new investor, underscores the great potential of our BiCE platform to redefine the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. We welcome Eva to our Board of Directors, where her expertise will be invaluable as we work towards drug candidate selection. The additional financing further extends our cash runway into late 2026, and we remain hyper-focused on progressing our platform to the next stage of our development."

Eva Van Overmeire, Senior Investment Manager at Korys, said: "Commit is pioneering a unique platform technology that robustly activates the complement system and easily integrates with existing antibody formats in a plug-and-play fashion. This innovative technology holds the promise of significantly improving the lives of patients battling cancer and autoimmune diseases. We are impressed with the progress already made by the Commit team since the initial seed financing and we are confident they have the expertise to drive the platform forward."

On January 28, 2025 Lantheus Holdings, Inc. ("Lantheus" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: LNTH), the leading radiopharmaceutical-focused company committed to enabling clinicians to Find, Fight and Follow disease to deliver better patient outcomes, reported a definitive agreement to acquire Evergreen Theragnostics, Inc. ("Evergreen"), in an all-cash transaction consisting of an upfront payment of $250 million and up to an additional $752.5 million in potential milestone payments (Press release, Lantheus, JAN 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234649912]). Evergreen is a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company engaged in Contract Development and Manufacturing (CDMO) services as well as drug discovery and commercialization of proprietary products.

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This transaction is expected to solidify Lantheus’ capabilities as a fully integrated radiopharmaceutical company. The addition of Evergreen’s scalable manufacturing capabilities and infrastructure enhances Lantheus’ ability to meet the complex demands of radiopharmaceutical development and production. The acquisition also expands Lantheus’ oncology diagnostic pipeline by adding both OCTEVY, a registrational-stage PET diagnostic agent for certain neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) that could complement Lantheus’ therapeutic candidate PNT2003, as well as a number of clinical and pre-clinical novel theranostic pairs.

"As Lantheus continues to advance its industry leadership, this transaction, along with the agreement to acquire Life Molecular Imaging, enhances our operations across the radiopharmaceutical value chain," said Brian Markison, CEO of Lantheus. "With Evergreen’s manufacturing and development capabilities, we become fully integrated and will ultimately make a difference in the lives of more patients. We are pleased to welcome Evergreen’s talented team to Lantheus and are confident that their expertise in radiopharmaceutical theranostics and culture focused on developing new solutions for cancer patients will enrich our organization."

"Today marks an exciting new chapter for Evergreen as we look to join the Lantheus team," said James Cook, CEO of Evergreen. "Lantheus’ industry expertise and financial strength will help us bring our innovations to a broad patient population faster and support our mission to improve options for cancer patients through theranostic radiopharmaceuticals. We look forward to benefiting from Lantheus’ experience and resources to further advance our pipeline and continue developing cutting-edge therapies and diagnostics that have the potential to transform patient care. I am very pleased to have our Evergreen team join another industry-leading company with a shared vision."

Compelling Strategic and Financial Rationale

Enhanced Radiopharmaceutical Manufacturing Infrastructure: The acquisition advances Lantheus’ capabilities with the addition of Evergreen’s radioligand therapy (RLT) manufacturing infrastructure, including a revenue-generating CDMO business. Evergreen’s ability to work with a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic isotopes will enhance Lantheus’ ability to address the complexities of radiopharmaceutical development and production. Internalizing this infrastructure will enable Lantheus to develop technical and operational expertise, supply its clinical trials, scale manufacturing for commercial launches, mitigate third party risk, and support long-term growth.
Adds Near-Term Revenue with OCTEVY, which Complements PNT2003 Commercialization: Acquiring OCTEVY, a registrational-stage diagnostic imaging agent, provides Lantheus with additional growth potential while expanding its presence in NETs. Subject to FDA approval, OCTEVY is expected to be indicated for use with positron emission tomography (PET) for localization of somatostatin receptor-positive NETs in adult and pediatric patients. OCTEVY and Lantheus’ PNT2003 could be used as a theranostic pair.
Advanced Early Development Capabilities: Evergreen brings a fully integrated drug discovery and early-stage clinical development platform, promising early-stage oncology assets, and a highly skilled team that can generate novel targets and advance promising radiotherapeutic programs.
Additional Transaction Details
Under the terms of the agreement, Lantheus will pay an upfront amount of $250 million, payable in cash at closing, and up to $752.5 million in development and sales milestones related to OCTEVY and Evergreen’s clinical and pre-clinical pipeline. The transaction has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory clearances.

Company Reaffirms Full Year 2024 Financial Guidance

Guidance Issued November 6, 2024

FY 2024 Revenue

$1.51 billion – $1.52 billion

FY 2024 Adjusted Fully Diluted
EPS

$6.65 – $6.70

Advisors
Solomon Partners Securities, LLC acted as financial advisor to Lantheus in this transaction, while Cooley LLP and Ropes & Gray LLP acted as legal advisors, and Ernst & Young LLP acted as financial and tax advisor.

Centerview Partners LLC acted as financial advisor to Evergreen, while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Lowenstein Sandler LLP acted as legal advisors, and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC acted as tax advisor.

Conference Call and Webcast Details
Lantheus will hold a conference call on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at 8:30 AM ET. To access the live conference via webcast, please register here. A replay will be available after the conclusion of the call on Lantheus’ investor website at: View Source

On January 28, 2025 Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Taiho Oncology, Inc., and Cullinan Therapeutics, Inc., reported that the REZILIENT1 trial, a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of zipalertinib (development code: CLN-081/TAS6417) monotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertion mutations who have received prior therapy, met its primary endpoint of overall response rate (Press release, Taiho, JAN 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234649911]). The safety profile was generally consistent with previous data presentations. These results are based on the Phase 2b part of this study.

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Full results from REZILIENT1 will be submitted for presentation at an upcoming international medical conference. Pending discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the companies plan to submit for U.S. regulatory approval in the second half of 2025.

About the REZILIENT1 Trial
REZILIENT1 is a Phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT04036682) to evaluate efficacy and safety of zipalertinib in patients with NSCLC harboring EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations who have received prior therapy. The topline results obtained at this time are based on the Phase 2b part of this study. Preliminary results of REZILIENT1 have been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1

REZILIENT: Researching Zipalertinib In EGFR Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Tumors

About Zipalertinib
Zipalertinib (development code: CLN-081/TAS6417) is an orally available small molecule designed to target activating mutations in EGFR. The molecule was selected because of its ability to inhibit EGFR variants with exon 20 insertion mutations, while sparing wild-type EGFR. Zipalertinib is designed as a next generation, irreversible EGFR inhibitor for the treatment of a genetically defined subset of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Zipalertinib has received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA.

Zipalertinib is being developed by Taiho Oncology, Inc., its parent company, Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and in collaboration with Cullinan Therapeutics, Inc. in the U.S.

About the EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations
NSCLC is a common form of lung cancer and up to 4% of all cases have EGFR exon 20 insertions, which makes them the third most common EGFR mutation subtype.2 In the United States, approximately 16% of patients with NSCLC harbor EGFR mutations, with insertions at exon 20 accounting for up to 12% of these mutations.

On January 28, 2025 Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc. (the "Company" or "Sonnet") (NASDAQ: SONN), a clinical-stage company developing targeted immunotherapeutic drugs, reported that the European Patent Office (EPO) has granted Patent No. EP3583125 B1, entitled "Albumin Binding Domain Fusion Proteins," which covers Sonnet’s Fully Human Albumin Binding (FHAB) technology and includes therapeutic fusion proteins that utilize FHAB for tumor targeting and retention and provide extended pharmacokinetics (PK) (Press release, Sonnet BioTherapeutics, JAN 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234649908]). The EU patent carries a term effective until February 20, 2038. Additionally, the Company announced the release of a "What This Means" segment to discuss the EU patent and its global IP estate, which is now available here.

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"The granting of this EU patent represents another milestone that provides expanded global protection along with building our intellectual capital and differentiation from any existing or emerging competitive technologies that may leverage the beneficial characteristics of binding to human serum albumin," commented Pankaj Mohan, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Sonnet. "Further, this European patent issuance expands the global IP protection for our product pipeline beyond previous patents issued in China, Japan, Russia and New Zealand, which we believe provides further validation for our FHAB platform."

Sonnet’s FHAB platform consists of a single, fully human construct of a FHAB antibody fragment that has high affinity to bind to human albumin. The platform provides an off-the-shelf lock and load opportunity to rapidly develop numerous therapeutic biologics.

John Cini, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CSO of Sonnet commented, "The FHAB platform technology provides each of Sonnet’s pipeline drug candidates with either a mono- or bi-functional mechanism of action, thus allowing for the potential of biological synergy between cytokines. Preclinical comparative in vivo studies with wild type cytokines have shown that FHAB-derived drug candidates have reproducibly extended pharmacokinetics, enhanced payload delivery to the tumor and improved efficacy."

On January 28, 2025 SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLS) ("SELLAS" or the "Company"), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies for a broad range of cancer indications, reported that it has entered into a securities purchase agreement with a single healthcare-focused institutional investor for the purchase and sale of 19,685,040 shares of its common stock (or common stock equivalents in lieu thereof) and warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 19,685,040 shares of common stock in a registered direct offering (the "Offering") at a combined purchase price of $1.27 per share and accompanying warrant, priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules (Press release, Sellas Life Sciences, JAN 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234649907]). The warrants will have an exercise price of $1.20 per share, will be immediately exercisable upon issuance and will expire 5 years from issuance.

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The closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about January 29, 2025, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The gross proceeds from the Offering are expected to be approximately $25 million, before deducting placement agent fees and other estimated offering expenses. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering for working capital purposes and general corporate procedures, including the purchase of any pending or future acquisitions.

A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners is acting as lead placement agent for the Offering and Maxim Group LLC is acting as co-placement agent for the Offering.

The Offering is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-278334) previously filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). A prospectus supplement describing the terms of the proposed Offering will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SEC’s website located at View Source Electronic copies of the prospectus supplement may be obtained, when available, from A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners, 590 Madison Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10022, or by telephone at (212) 624-2060, or by email at [email protected].

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other 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 other jurisdiction.