Moderna and cancer-focused drug developer CytomX Therapeutics (CytomX) have announced a collaboration and licensing agreement to create investigational mRNA-based conditionally activated therapies for a wide range of diseases.

The partners will utilise both CytomX’s Probody therapeutic platform, used in the development of cancer therapies targeting diseased tissues, and Moderna’s mRNA technologies.

Under the terms of the agreement, CytomX will receive an upfront payment of $35m from Moderna and will be eligible to receive up to $1.2bn in future development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, as well as tiered global net sales royalties.

Both companies will work on discovery and preclinical development, with Moderna responsible for human trials and commercial activities of therapeutics resulting from the agreement.

The biotech will also have the option to participate in a future equity financing by CytomX, subject to certain terms, conditions and regulatory requirements.

CytomX also announced a collaboration and licensing agreement with Regeneron in November 2022 to create conditionally-activated investigational bispecific cancer therapies.

The partnership will also utilise the company’s Probody platform, along with Regeneron’s Veloci-Bi antibody development platform, and sees CytomX receive an upfront payment of $30m, as well as additional future target nomination payments and milestones of up to $2bn.

Ipsen has announced it will acquire rare disease specialist Albireo for $952m in a deal that is set to strengthen the French biopharma’s liver disease pipeline.

Through the acquisition, Ipsen will gain access to Bylvay (odevixibat), a non-systemic ileal bile acid transport inhibitor, which gained US and EU approval in 2021 for the treatment of paediatric patients with pruritus in progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis.

In addition to this lead indication, the company announced in December 2022 that it had made supplementary regulatory filings for Bylvay in the EU and the US for Alagille syndrome, another paediatric liver disease for which the most debilitating symptom is severe pruritus.

Bylvay is also currently in phase 3 development for biliary atresia (BA), the most common of three main paediatric liver diseases and the leading cause of liver transplants for children.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ipsen will initiate a tender offer for $42 per share plus a contingent value right of $10 per share tied to the potential approval of Bylvay in BA.

As part of the transaction, Ipsen will also acquire Albireo’s clinical stage asset A3907, a novel oral systemic apical sodium-dependent bile acid transporter inhibitor currently in development for adult cholestatic liver disease, such as primary sclerosing cholangitis.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a funding appeal for $2.54bn to assist people who are facing health emergencies around the world.

The emergency health appeal comes as the number of people in need of humanitarian relief has increased to a record 339 million – up by almost a quarter from 2022 figures – with WHO saying that it is currently responding to an ‘unprecedented’ number of intersecting health emergencies.

Included in this are climate change-related disasters such as flooding in Pakistan and food insecurity across the Sahel and in the greater Horn of Africa, the war in Ukraine and the health impact of conflict in Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and northern Ethiopia.

These emergencies are also coinciding with the health system disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as outbreaks of illnesses such as measles and cholera.

WHO is currently responding to 54 health crises across the world, eleven of which are classified as grade 3 – the organisation’s highest level of response – and require a major response.

When speaking at the launch event for this “second consolidated” health emergency appeal at WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, WHO director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also referred to the organisation’s “first consolidated” health emergency appeal last year for $2.7bn.

BioNTech and the UK government have agreed on a strategic partnership to accelerate clinical trials for personalised mRNA immunotherapies. The aim is to provide up to 10,000 patients with this personalised type of treatment by the end of 2030.

The partners plan to utilise the UK’s clinical trial network, genomics and health data assets to accelerate trial site and patient recruitment to test BioNTech’s pipeline of personalised mRNA cancer immunotherapies and infectious disease vaccines.

The next steps of the collaboration will be to select candidates and trial sites, and set up a development plan, in order to begin enrolment in the second half of 2023.

To date, several hundred patients have been treated with mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies as part of BioNTech’s trials for product candidates using its FixVac and iNeST platforms.

BioNTech said it will strengthen its UK footprint by setting up regional headquarters in London. As part of the collaboration, it will remain the local sponsor of current and upcoming new clinical trials of its programmes in the UK and will design the clinical trial protocols.

The company also announced that it plans to invest in a UK research and development hub in Cambridge that will employ more than 70 highly skilled scientists, with the first scientist starting work early this year.