Plus, news about Aclaris, OMERS Life Sciences, Draupnir Bio, Pharnext and Actuate:
SK Biopharmaceuticals licenses Full-Life’s radiopharma drug: The deal — which is worth $571.5 million in upfront and milestone payments — gives the South Korean biotech exclusive global rights to Full-Life’s FL-091 program. FL-091 is a “small-molecule radioligand vector” that targets neurotensin receptor 1 positive cancers. — Ayisha Sharma
Aslan liquidates, terminates all employees: The company dissolved after saying Wednesday it “cannot by reason of its liabilities continue its business.” Aslan is attempting to sell its two drug assets: an anti-IL-13 antibody called eblasakimab and an oral dihydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibitor dubbed farudodstat. — Max Gelman
Aclaris sells Olumiant royalties: OMERS Life Sciences made an upfront payment of $26.5 million to Aclaris in exchange for its royalties on alopecia sales of Eli Lilly’s Olumiant. Aclaris can also get another $5 million in sales milestones. — Max Gelman
Novo Holdings-backed Draupnir Bio secures €12M in seed round: The Copenhagen-based biotech plans to use the funds to continue its work in targeted protein degradation. Draupnir’s technology platform uses lysosome receptors to target new disease-causing proteins. The seed round was backed by Novo Holdings, Inkef Capital and other investors. — Ayisha Sharma
Pharnext begins liquidation process: The French neuroscience biotech plans to liquidate its assets after running out of cash, according to a translated news release. The company warned a few days prior that liquidation was likely after it defaulted on its debt to Neovacs and failed to secure additional capital from Global Tech Opportunities 13. Back in December, Pharnext reported that a Phase 3 study of a treatment for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1, a nerve-based disorder causing muscle weakness, failed, with the company citing abnormally high placebo responses. — Max Bayer
Actuate ready to go public: As previously outlined, the startup is seeking $45 million in the IPO, and the figure could rise to $52 million if all options are exercised. Actuate plans to use the money to run a Phase 2 trial in pancreatic cancer for its GSK-3β program, elraglusib. — Max Gelman