NEW YORK – Amgen said this week that it has successfully completed its purchase of clinical-stage biotech Five Prime Therapeutics. The acquisition follows Amgen's previously announced tender offer to buy all outstanding shares of Five Prime's common stock for $38 per share, totaling $1.9 billion. The deal adds Five Prime's bemarituzumab — in development as a treatment for FGFR2b-positive, non-HER2-positive, advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer — to Amgen's portfolio. Amgen intends to use its global footprint to expand bemarituzumab's reach into regions such as Japan, South Korea, and Latin America. The firm also plans to review additional Five Prime oncology assets and consider adding them to its pipeline.
BC Platforms this week said that the Australian Breast Cancer Tissue Bank is joining the company's BCRquest.com global network of biobanks, which supplies research cohorts for pharmaceutical research and development. The tissue bank, housed at the University of Sydney Westmead Institute for Medical Research, hopes to improve outcomes for patients with breast cancer through its participation in BCRquest.
Siemens Healthineers this week said that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Palo Alto, California-based Varian Medical Systems. Siemens Healthineers said that with Varian it will leverage artificial intelligence-assisted analytics to advance the development and delivery of data-driven precision care and redefine cancer diagnosis, care delivery, and post-treatment survivorship.
Agilent said this week that has completed the acquisition of Resolution Biosciences. Agilent believes the firm's liquid biopsy-based technology will strengthen its offerings to biopharma and clinical diagnostic customers, as well as boost its diagnostic and genomics business.
Angle said this week that it has secured its first large-scale pharma services contract with an undisclosed pharma partner. The customer will use Angle's Parsortix system to perform longitudinal monitoring of patients in three separate global clinical trials in prostate cancer and other locally advanced and metastatic solid tumors. Angle said the contract is expected to be worth up to $1.2 million over about 18 months and relates to a large Phase III prostate cancer study and two smaller Phase I studies. The services cover the capture, harvest, and analysis of circulating tumor cells and CTC clusters.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared in Precision Oncology News.