Look back at pharma news in the week to July 23, 2021

By Barbara Obstoj-Cardwell

Last week saw the announcement of two large licensing agreements. First, Gilead Sciences’ subsidiary Kite entered into a deal with BioNTech, whereby the German biotech, mostly in the news due to its COVID-19 vaccine developed with Pfizer, has acquired an R&D platform and clinical manufacturing facility in Maryland. The second deal was US pharma giant Pfizer signing an agreement with Arvinas for rights to the latter’s breast cancer candidate, ARV-471, that could cost it more than $2 billion. On the regulatory front, US biotech bluebird bio gained regulatory approval from the European Commission for its gene therapy Skysona. Also, Albireo received approval from both the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines for its rare liver disease drug Bylvay.

Deal with Gilead indicates how BioNTech will invest its COVID-19 riches