Roche signs a €900M deal with Blueprint Medicines

Roche (Switzerland), leader in cancer therapies, has been redirecting its efforts towards immuno-oncology and has picked 5 candidates from Blueprint Medicines (Boston, US) to complement its leading oncology pipeline.
Blueprint Medicines will receive €40M upfront to collaborate on the development of 5 of its preclinical candidates. Depending on how these small molecule therapies perform in trials, Blueprint could be aiming at over €850M in milestones and licenses.

Source : La Biotech.eu 

AstraZeneca and Genentech put pen on paper and bankroll to finance PatientsLikeMe study on lung cancer

AstraZeneca and Genentech (a member of the Roche Group) have agreed to finance a study of lung cancer patients that will analyze PatientsLikeMe’s patient-reported outcomes alongside traditional forms of data. The project is designed to assess the value of giving researchers a broader overview of factors that can affect health outcomes.

Source : FierceBiotechIT

Cellectis and MabQuest announce immunotherapy partnership

Cellectis (France) and MabQuest announced that they have entered into a research collaboration and license agreement pertaining to the development of a new class of monoclonal antibodies targeting PD-1. These anti-PD-1 mAbs have potential uses for multiple indications in immunotherapy, including notably treatments for a variety of cancers.

Source : BusinessWire

Johnson & Johnson Innovation launches JLINX: A new company incubation model 

Located at the Janssen Campus in Belgium, JLINX will offer scientists and entrepreneurs access to venture funding, state-of-the-art facilities and R&D expertise. JLINX is designed to accelerate early-stage transformative innovation, including an emphasis on the human microbiome as well as broader life-science research.

Source : BusinessWire