Leading life sciences venture firm Sofinnova Partners entered into a long-term strategic and financial partnership with Apollo, a high-growth, alternative asset manager looking to expand its presence in the life sciences.

Cullinan Oncology and Taiho Pharmaceutical announced that Taiho was acquiring Cullinan Pearl and will co-develop and co-commercialize a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) drug.

BridgeBio announced that the Palo Alto, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical company signed an exclusive deal with Bristol Myers Squibb to develop and commercialize a potential treatment for cancer.

In the company’s financial results for 2021 released on May 11, Takeda announced the decision to discontinue the development of TAK-609, a therapeutic for Hunter Syndrome. Additionally, Takeda is collaborating with JCR Pharmaceuticals in another therapeutic attempt for the condition.

Twist Bioscience and Astellas have entered into a research collaboration and exclusive option license agreement to identify potential therapeutic antibodies which would help to reduce tumor microenvironment-mediated immunosuppression.

Janssen terminated a seven-year-old vaccine collaboration with Bavarian Nordic. The two companies partnered in 2015 to develop potential vaccines against the hepatitis B virus and human papillomaviruses.

Genesis Therapeutics and Eli Lilly entered into a strategic collaboration to discover novel therapies utilizing Genesis’ AI platform.

A collaboration between Gilead Sciences and Dragonfly Therapeutics was announced May 2, with an end goal of bringing Dragonfly’s DF7001 natural killer (NK) engager program designed for patients with cancer or inflammatory diseases to fruition. 

Plexium Inc. and AbbVie Inc. entered into an exclusive strategic collaboration to develop and commercialize novel Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) therapeutics for neurological conditions.

Nektar Therapeutics outlined a strategic reorganization plan that includes cutting 70 percent of the company’s workforce, only weeks after Bristol Myers Squibb abandoned its clinical collaboration program with Nektar on bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma.