Sorrento Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SRNE), a San Diego-Nanjing-Suzhou biopharma, rejected a $7 per share take-private offer from an unnamed PE company that valued the company at $933 million (see story). Sorrento, which is facing a cash crunch, reported a loss of $57 million over the last 12 months, while it has only $35 million of cash on hand. Nevertheless, the board of directors said the offer "significantly undervalues" the company, which has a portfolio of immunoncology assets in its pipeline and one marketed drug, ZTlido (lidocaine) for pain.

Ocumension, a China ophthalmology company, announced a $12 million agreement for Greater China rights to Dexycu® 9%, a treatment for inflammation following ocular surgery, from EyePoint Pharma (Nasdaq: EYPT) of Massachusetts (see story). Dexycu® 9%, a sustained release product, can provide a benefit for up to 22 days following cataract surgery. Ocumension will pay $2 million upfront and also make up to $10 million in milestone payments, plus royalties. Ocumension was established by 6 Dimensions Capital in 2018 to in-license ophthalmology products for China use.

Biotheus, a Guangdong biotech, in-licensed greater China rights to an oncolytic virus from Finland's TILT Biotherapeutics. TILT's proprietary technology codes novel oncolytic viruses for cytokines (see story). The candidate, TILT-123, is a human 5/3 chimeric adenovirus capable of replicating only in cells defective in retinoblastoma/p16 pathway, which are found in most human tumors. Biotheus is developing a broad portfolio of me-better/novel drugs focused on immuno-oncology and metabolic diseases. The company plans to out-license late-stage clinical and commercialization activities to global partners.

Ningbo NewBay Medical Technology (SIX: ROG) in-licensed greater China rights to a novel small molecule Pan-PIM inhibitor from Genentech, a Roche company (see story). GDC-0570 showed efficacy against multiple myeloma and prostate cancer in preclinical tests, according to the company. The PIM kinases regulate cell metabolism, and GDC-0570 is a potential first-in-class drug candidate. Ningbo NewBay is a subsidiary of Ningbo Tai Kang Medical Technology. NewBay and Tai Kang own greater China rights for two EP4 antagonists from AskAt and global rights for a c-KIT inhibitor from AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN).

Trials and Approvals

DelMar Pharma (Nasdaq: DMPI) of San Diego announced its VAL-083 increased progression-free survival in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) in a China Phase II trial (see story). The first 22 patients reported a median PFS of 9.9 months and the first 18 patients, some of whom received an increased dose, had a median PFS of 10.4 months. Although the trial was not a head-to-head comparison, the standard temozolomide (TMZ) treatment has a PFS of 6.9 months. All patients in the trial had an unmethylated promoter of the methylguanine DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) gene, which usually causes resistance to chemotherapy.

CSPC Pharma (HK: 1093) has begun a China bridging trial of Copiktra® (duvelisib) in patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (see story). Copiktra is an oral inhibitor of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). It was approved in 2018 in the US to treat adult patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma. Copiktra is the first approved dual inhibitor of PI3K-delta and PI3K-gamma in the US. CSPC, a Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province company that makes novel and generic drugs, in-licensed China rights to Copiktra from Boston's Verastem (NSDQ: VSTM) in 2018.

CStone Pharma (HK: 2616) of Suzhou has dosed the first patient in an Australian clinical trial that combines its PD-L1 inhibitor with Bayer's Stivarga® (regorafenib), an oral multi-kinase inhibitor (see story). CStone already has eight clinical trials of CS1001 underway, including four China Phase III studies. Bayer's regorafenib, which blocks protein kinases including VEGFR, FGFR, and CSF1R, is approved globally for metastatic colorectal cancer, metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. In May 2019, CStone and Bayer announced a global clinical CS1001-regorafenib collaboration with CStone responsible for conducting the tests.

Coronavirus Outbreak

The Wuhan coronavirus (2019-nCoV) continues to spread with 5970 documented cases in China and over 6,000 cases worldwide (see story). That puts the current outbreak ahead of the 5,327 people infected during the 2002-2003 SARS crisis. So far, 132 people have died from the latest coronavirus, while the SARS epidemic caused 348 deaths. In general, the SARS coronavirus was slower to spread, but more virulent than 2019-nCoV. China is assembling a prefabricated hospital in Wuhan with 1,000 beds to treat people with the disease, a task that could be completed in just 10 days. Around, the world, biopharmas are gearing up to address the problem.

On January 25, Ascletis (HK:1672) of Hangzhou filed with China's NMPA to include its combination of two HIV protease inhibitors in the emergency channel as a treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus (2019-nCoV) (see story). Ascletis's proposed therapy combines ritonavir, a generic version of AbbVie’s Norvir, with ASC09. Ascletis has completed Phase IIa testing of ASC09 for HIV in China. In August, the company filed for ritonavir approval in China. AbbVie has also filed for emergency approval of its Kaletra, a combination of ritonavir and lopinavir that showed efficacy against SARS, another coronavirus.

BravoVax, a Wuhan vaccine developer, signed a letter of intent with Atlanta's GeoVax Labs (OTC: GOVXD) to jointly develop a coronavirus (2019-nCoV) vaccine (see story). GeoVax will use its MVA-VLP vaccine platform to design and construct the candidate using genetic sequences from the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. BravoVax will provide testing and manufacturing support, and it will be responsible for interacting with China public health and regulatory authorities. A preclinical company, BravoVax is developing vaccines for pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus, human papillomavirus and varicella zoster.