VIG Partners, a South Korean private equity firm, plans to acquire Viol, an aesthetic medical device maker, and delist it from KOSDAQ. They will buy a 34.76% stake from DMS and seek 20.76% to 64.09% of shares via a tender offer at 12,500 won per share, totaling up to ₩468 billion ($337 million). VIG has secured ₩211.6 billion ($152 million) in equity and ₩258.7 billion ($186 million) in debt. The deal includes a share exchange with DMS and aims for a voluntary delisting.

DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Avicenna Biosciences today introduced an extension to its machine learning (ML) technology platform to enhance medicinal chemistry and expedite clinical-stage drug discovery. The company has raised $14.5 million in funding to date, with DCVC Bio leading its 2022 seed round, and this month published a paper in the peer-reviewed Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling. Co-authored with researchers from Schrödinger and Microsoft Research AI4Science, the paper outlines how combining Schrödinger’s physics-based methods with Avicenna’s novel ML methods can make the lead-to-drug optimization phase of small molecule drug discovery faster, less expensive and more successful – particularly when it comes to engineering potency and selectivity against a potential biological target.“We’re accustomed to hearing scientific success stories, but the countless failures that happen along the way often get overlooked. In medicinal chemistry especially, failure is prevalent. It can require hundreds of millions of dollars across many clinical attempts to bridge the complex gap from chemistry and biology to medicine, and successfully develop an approved drug,” said Dr. Thomas Kaiser, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Avicenna

Pictured: A hand holding a bag of money and a pill bottle/Taylor Tieden for BioSpaceWhen biopharma companies test novel therapies in clinical trials, the primary focus of the research is on determining if the intervention works, with the goal of achieving FDA approval to enter the market. But there’s another part of clinical development that must not be neglected: health economics and outcomes research (HEOR), a multidisciplinary approach to evaluating the economic and clinical outcomes of healthcare interventions.Sponsors that skip this step could develop a safe and effective novel drug but fail to effectively commercialize it because payers don't recognize its cost/benefit improvement over existing options and do not cover it. Expensive therapies and diagnostics could therefore be out of reach for patients. Patients holding on to the promise of a new therapeutic solution are devastated, leading to negative sentiment against the sponsor. On the other hand, sponsors that demonstrate positive economic impact to payers early on could simultaneously bring their drug to market faster (without the requirement of additional studies) and to more patients at launch. Everybody wins.Even HEOR analysis that shows financial strain provides sponsors with vital data to inform the creation of drug pricing strategies and copay assistance programs to circumvent any negative consequences