GSK’s $1B Acquisition, Roche Licenses Gene Therapy, New Products, More

By Bio-IT World Team   

January 28, 2025 | 23andMe launches a new research offering after mass resignation by their board, new multi-omics tool from Enhanc3D Genomics, Absci and Owkin announce an AI partnership, a new cloud-based vivarium platform from Charles River, and more.

23andMe Holding Co. has launched Discover23, a new research offering enabling authorized collaborators to securely access the power and diversity of the 23andMe research cohort through a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) developed by Lifebit. Discover23 provides analysis-ready genome-wide association studies (GWAS) conducted on 1000+ disease and condition cohorts curated from 4.7B phenotypic data points by 23andMe’s expert scientists. Biopharma collaborators will be able to access summarized results of analyses conducted using data stripped of personal identifiers within 23andMe’s TRE, where authorized researchers are provided with highly secure, isolated workspaces to leverage 23andMe research findings while ensuring the protection of participant privacy. Press release.   

PathAI has announced a strategic partnership with Discovery Life Sciences, a leading biospecimens and specialty lab testing company, to offer Discovery’s customers enhanced, AI-enabled digital and quantitative insights from biospecimens to better inform drug and diagnostic development. This collaboration marks a milestone as the first at-scale deployment of AI technologies into a leading commercial biobank. Through this partnership, Discovery will deploy PathAI’s AISight Image Management System (IMS), ArtifactDetect, and TumorDetect products globally across its biospecimens business. In doing so, Discovery will help transform their traditional pathology workflow, significantly saving pathologists' time by automating routine tasks and analysis and allowing pathologists to focus on more complex tasks. Discovery will also empower customers with additional quantitative, tissue-level insights to provide more confident and standardized structured data from their biospecimens. Press release.  

MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Opentrons Labworks, a leader in lab automation and accessible robotics, announced a multi-year agreement to automate assay kits on a custom Opentrons Flex workstation. Scientists and engineers will collaborate to develop and verify platform workflows using the broad offering of automation-enabled assays from the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Together, the custom workstation and automation-enabled assays will deliver increased consistency and higher throughput by reducing manual processing and repetitive tasks with a user-friendly robotic system. Customers can place orders for workstations and assay kits starting mid-2025. Applications will include broad workflows across protein sample preparation, molecular, cell, and other biochemical and chemistry workflows launching throughout the length of the agreement. Press release.   

Charles River Laboratories International has launched Apollo for CRADL, a secure cloud-based platform that enhances leading vivarium rental services through a digital platform that connects clients effortlessly with the training, tools and services needed to start research quickly. As a digital companion to CRADL’s existing rental space offering, Apollo's centralized dashboard seamlessly connects clients to online training, Charles River’s Research Models Online Ordering System, and other study support services. For CRADL clients, who are looking for simplified capability to launch or expand drug discovery and development programs, Apollo for CRADL streamlines onboarding, making the process of starting research faster and easier within CRADL. Additionally, it provides clients with direct control of reservations for technical services, rooms, and equipment while facilitating protocol management and IACUC committee communication to expedite research execution. Press release.   

Enhanc3D Genomics has launched a suite of integrated multi-omics solutions to accelerate and improve the precision of drug discovery. Enhanced’s 3D Multi-omic platform is based on patented Promoter Capture Hi-C technology, offering high-resolution, genome-wide regulatory maps of any cell type, sub-type, or state, by capturing interactions between promoters and regulatory regions. The platform is uniquely able to analyze these interactions across the entire genome within one assay. By integrating 3D genomic data and data from the 3D Multi-Omic Atlas—the company’s extensive repository of multi-omic data across human cell types—the new solutions provide deep, data-driven insights into disease mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities. Press release.   

Diaceutics and Cornerstone AI have launcheda strategic partnership to enhance the accuracy, completeness and usability of data from the DXRX laboratory network. The collaboration integrates Cornerstone AI's proprietary lab data algorithms with Diaceutics' real-world data ecosystem, generating LOINC assignments to deliver faster, more accurate, and clinically meaningful insights. Laboratory data, often disjointed and inconsistent, remains a major hurdle in implementing precision medicine initiatives. By combining Cornerstone AI's advanced data quality and enhancement technology with Diaceutics' expertise in real-world data, the partnership addresses this challenge head-on improving overall data integrity. These advancements offer pharmaceutical, biotech, and diagnostics companies a stronger foundation for clinical development, faster market access, and better patient outcomes—delivering significant value across the healthcare ecosystem. Press release.   

Aenitis Technologies, a leader in acoustofluidic innovations, has entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Bracco Imaging, manufacturer of contrast agents and associated solutions. This strategic partnership is set to explore the development of next-generation acoustic microspheres, a groundbreaking alternative to conventional magnetic beads for rare and complex cell sorting and separation in flow-based applications. This collaboration brings together Aenitis' proprietary acoustophoresis technology and Bracco's expertise in functionalized microsystems to focus on rare and complex cell sorting, a critical step in advancing cell therapy and biomanufacturing. Press release (PDF).   

Novo Nordisk andValo Health have expanded their agreement to discover and develop novel treatments for obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease based on Valo’s extensive human dataset and computation powered by artificial intelligence. Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Valo is entitled to receive an upfront payment, equity investment, and a potential near-term milestone payment, totaling $190 million, and is now eligible to receive milestone payments for up to 20 drug programs, an addition of 9 new drug programs, totaling approximately $4.6 billion, plus R&D funding and potential royalty payments. The expanded collaboration will continue to leverage the capabilities of Valo’s Opal Computational Platform, as well as key joint capabilities in human data and genetics with Novo Nordisk’s expertise in cardiometabolic diseases. Press release.  

Absci and Owkin have announced a partnership bringing together two leading AI platforms to rapidly discover and design novel therapeutics for patients. Absci and Owkin will co-develop therapeutic candidates addressing novel targets in immuno-oncology and other indications, such as immunology and inflammation. Owkin’s predictive AI models will optimize target selection and validate therapeutic hypotheses using extensive biomedical datasets and patient-derived organoids. Absci’s generative AI Drug Creation platform, including its de novo antibody design models, will rapidly design therapeutic candidates against these novel targets. Together, the companies will aim to streamline and accelerate the path from research to clinical development. Press release.  

Sapient has partnered with Alamar Biosciences to extend its targeted proteomics services to include high-sensitivity cytokine, chemokine, and neuroinflammatory mediator multiplex and single-plex assays using Alamar’s NULISA platform and ARGO HT system. Sapient will be an Alamar-certified service provider for the NULISAseq Inflammation Panel profiling 250+ cytokine and chemokine biomarkers and the NULISAseq CNS Disease Panel profiling 120+ low-abundance neurodegeneration and neuroinflammatory biomarkers, as well as for custom development of precision proteomics assays using Alamar’s technologies. Sapient will additionally be working closely with Alamar to offer NULISAseq assays under regulated guidance, including CAP/CLIA and GCLP. Press release.  

GSK has acquired IDRx. Under the agreement, GSK will pay $1 billion upfront, with potential for an additional $150 million success-based regulatory approval milestone payment. The acquisition includes lead molecule, IDRX-42, a highly selective KIT TKI being developed as a first- and second-line therapy for the treatment of GIST. GIST typically presents in the GI tract with 80% of cases driven by mutations in the KIT gene that lead to the growth, proliferation, and survival of tumor cells (primary or activating mutations). Press release.  

Dyno Therapeutics announced that Roche has exercised its option to license a novel capsid for use in a gene therapy program for an undisclosed neurological disease indication. Dyno’s platform applies AI and high-throughput in vivo data to solve the most critical challenge facing gene therapy developers: gene delivery. While naturally occurring AAV capsids lack precise targeting to deliver medicine to the right cells, are difficult to manufacture, and have pre-existing immunity, Dyno’s platform navigates the deep sequence space to create synthetic AAV capsids with optimized properties that outperform existing capsids. Dyno’s gene delivery solutions will enable its partners to develop next-generation gene therapies that can potentially benefit all patients. Press release. 

Revvity announced a strategic agreement to commercialize an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) workflow solution for neonatal sequencing, co-developed with Element Biosciences. This initiative builds upon Revvity's recent introduction of an automated next-generation sequencing (NGS) workflow for newborn sequencing research and strengthens Element’s momentum towards regulatory approval of the benchtop AVITI sequencing system. The collaboration involves the co-development of a comprehensive IVD solution tailored for newborn sequencing. Additionally, customers will have immediate access to a research use only (RUO) version of the newborn sequencing research workflow. Press release.  

Ginkgo Bioworks announced a research collaboration with Universal Cells, an Astellas company, to optimize next-generation induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cancer cell therapies. This collaboration underscores Ginkgo's capacity to deploy high-throughput biological approaches to tackle the complex challenge set associated with development of therapies targeting solid tumors. By combining Universal Cells' proprietary iPSC-derived cell technologies with Ginkgo's expertise in design and screening large CAR libraries and its high throughput, multimodal immune cell engineering platform, the companies aim to accelerate the development of more potent and durable cell therapies while maintaining manufacturability at scale. Press release.  

Inverna Therapeutics, co-founded by the University of Southern Denmark and Argobio, has launched as an RNA therapeutics company first focusing on a lead program addressing Huntington’s disease. Inverna aims to overcome the limitations of conventional RNA therapeutics by harnessing the revolutionary potential of sequence-based splice modulation to provide safer and more effective treatments for a wide range of debilitating diseases. Press release.