Amgen has signed a definitive agreement to acquire biopharmaceutical company ChemoCentryx for $52 for each share in cash or a total enterprise cost of nearly $3.7bn. With the takeover, Amgen will gain access to ChemoCentryx ’s Tavneos (avacopan), a therapy for serious autoimmune diseases. This therapy complements Amgen’s expertise in inflammation and nephrology. An orally administered selective inhibitor of complement component 5a receptor, Tavneos received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October last year. It is approved as an adjunctive therapy along with standard therapy for treating adults with severe active ANCA-associated vasculitis, particularly granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA).

Avista Therapeutics, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) spinout, has entered a collaboration with Roche for developing new AAV gene therapy vectors for eyes. Avista is entitled to receive $7.5m in upfront payment from Roche. The alliance plans to leverage the single-cell adeno-associated virus (AAV) engineering (scAAVengr) platform technology of Avista to develop intravitreal AAV capsids for a Roche-defined profile. According to the deal, Roche holds the right to analyse and licence new capsids from Avista. Roche will use these new capsids to carry out preclinical, clinical and marketing activities for gene therapy programmes. These capsids will be different from the internal pipeline of Avista.

Moderna has entered a new supply contract with the US Government to deliver 66 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine booster candidate, mRNA-1273.222, this year. The contract comprises a $1.74bn award to produce and supply these vaccine doses and options to further procure up to 234 million additional doses of the company’s booster candidates. A bivalent booster candidate, the mRNA-1273.222 vaccine comprises Spikevax along with the Omicron BA.4/5 strain messenger RNA (mRNA). On the US exercising options, the doses could total 300 million. The US Department of Health and Human Services, and Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and others are supporting the deal through federal funds.

Sangamo Therapeutics has received orphan medicinal product designation (OMPD) from the European Commission (EC) for its Investigational autologous Chimeric Antigen Receptor Regulatory T Cell (CAR-Treg) cell therapy, TX200, for solid organ transplantation. TX200 has been developed for reducing the transplant rejection risk by suppressing inflammation in the local area and promoting immunological tolerance. The cell therapy is being evaluated in patients with HLA-A2 negative receiving a mismatched kidney from a living donor with HLA-A2 positive kidney. In March, the company dosed the first participant in the Phase I/II STEADFAST clinical study, which is designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of TX200.

The EC has extended Bavarian Nordic’s smallpox vaccine Imvanex (MVA-BN or Modified Vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic) marketing authorisation to offer protection from monkeypox. A non-replicating smallpox vaccine, Imvanex was developed in partnership with the US Government.The move to expand the marketing authorization for Imvanex to include protection from monkeypox and disease caused by the vaccinia virus comes after the EMA CHMP provided a positive opinion.

Ginkgo Bioworks has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of biotechnology company Zymergen in an all-stock deal worth nearly $300m. According to the agreement, 5.25% of the pro forma merged business will be owned by the stockholders of Zymergen following the acquisition. The deal to combine two complementary companies with identical visions is anticipated to expedite the development of the innovative horizontal synthetic biology platform of Ginkgo.