GSK, Novartis, Calliditas among winners at LSX Awards

This year’s LSX European Lifestars Awards (ELAs) in London, UK brought together pan-European Life Science executives and partners to celebrate their achievements.

With 17 awards up for grabs, it was certainly a night to remember in the life sciences industry. From M&A Deal of the Year through to Women-Led Business Leader of the Year, the awards encapsulated a wide variety of achievements accomplished in 2023.

Irish comedian Keith Farnan hosted the awards and kicked things off with the first category entitled “Seed Finance Raise of the Year.” This award aims to recognize a firm that has successfully completed a “transformational” private fundraise at Seed-Stage level.

Winners at the ELAs. Image/co: LSX

Clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company, ARTBIO picked up first place for its $23 million financing round. The funding is intended to support the creation of alpha radioligand therapies (ART) to reinvent cancer care.

While $23 million is no small amount, as the awards continued, the financials increased. For the Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Deal of the Year, we witnessed a tie and saw GlaxoSmith Kline (GSK) and Bellus Health become joint winners with Novartis and Chinook Therapeutics.

In June, GSK completed the acquisition of Canada-based late-stage biopharmaceutical firm Bellus Health for $2 billion. And in the same month, Swiss biopharma giant Novartis announced its plans to add late-stage monoclonal antibody (mAb) zigakibart (BION-1301) for IgA nephropathy (IgAN), a rare, progressive chronic kidney disease through the $3.2 billion acquisition of Chinook.

The first and only IgAN treatment conditionally approved in Europe is Calliditas Therapeutics’ oral delayed release formulation of budersonide named Kinpeygo. It has also received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval under the drug name Tarpeyo.

The awards night also honored female leadership and its importance in the life sciences sector. Renee Aguiar-Lucander, CEO of Calliditas, won Women-Led Business Leader of the Year at the ELAs for her strategic outlook and strong leadership, which is said to have facilitated the approvals for the firm’s IgAN treatment option.

“The 2023 ELAs brought together 560 life science executive leaders, investors, partners, and deal makers for an incredible night in London!” Josh Dance, managing director at LSX, told BioProcess Insider.

“We recognised and honoured outstanding contributions to the advancement of companies, teams, and individuals across 17 awards celebrating the brilliance, innovation, and groundbreaking achievements of our incredible industry over the past year. A huge congratulations to all our finalists and of course to the winners selected by our distinguished judging faculty.”

And the winner is…

The full list of the categories and winners at this year’s ELAs are: