Novartis expands the I-O space, and aduro makes a momentum for listing: pre clinical asset valuation continues to rise

Source: Lu Renbing 2015-03-31, US and Chinese medicine source, Novartis announced today that it will cooperate with aduro biotechnology to develop its cyclic binucleotide interferon gene activating protein (sting) ligand Novartis will make a down payment of US $200 million and mileage up to US $500 million Novartis will also take a 2.7% stake in aduro for $25 million and invest $25 million to develop the product Novartis has been a leader in the field of cancer since acquiring Glaxo's cancer product line last year, but now it's too embarrassed to call itself a big brother in the field of cancer without immunotherapy Novartis acquired costim, an I-O technology company, the year before last Today's acquisition is clearly part of the future I-O market machine plan Different from the past, Novartis announced the specific cooperation funds, I wonder if it is to help the listing of aduro Interferon gene activator protein is a kind of signal transduction protein, which can detect intracellular and extracellular nucleosides and induce the synthesis of interferon to activate the immune system Cyclic dinucleotide is usually synthesized by bacteria, and the concept of using bacteria to fight cancer has a long history Aduro has its own technology platform using Listeria as tumor antigen carrier and has nearly 1 billion US dollars of technical cooperation with Janssen Aduro's cyclic dinucleotide is still in the preclinical research stage, and Novartis' high price shows the strategic potential of this technology A few days ago, we discussed whether there was a bubble in biopharmaceuticals Today's co optimists will think that capital will continue to enter into Biopharmaceutics, and even pre clinical projects can be sold at a high price, so investment in this field is still profitable Pessimists will think that there will be a crash sooner or later when such a high-risk project is invested so heavily Interferon is one of the core components of the previous treatment of hepatitis C, known for its punishing side effects, which is why the new hepatitis C drugs without interferon can be sold for tens of billions of dollars in the first year Cancer is undoubtedly a more serious disease than hepatitis C, but the strategic risk of activating interferon synthesis is also self-evident Just five years ago, the whole I-O field was still doubted by the mainstream, which was not completely groundless Even the most successful PD-1 response was only about 20% (melanoma was the exception, about 50%) Now everyone seems to believe that any mechanism that activates the immune system has a great possibility of success, which is unrealistic Of course, the most likely use of immunotherapy with different mechanisms is compound combination, although there is no approved combination of I-O therapy The reason why Novartis, Squibb and other large enterprises pay such a high price for preclinical products is that these drugs may provide key components for future compound combinations This is similar to the situation that a large number of mainland workers poured into Shenzhen and other development zones at the beginning of reform and opening up Most of these people are not highly skilled and less able to become bosses However, due to the rapid development of the whole city, they need all kinds of human resources, so everyone can have a share At present, the immunotherapy in research can be used as a single side, I think it is rare, but many of them can become part of the combination of compound, and the combination of compound will increase greatly in the field of anti-cancer