Look back at pharma news in the week to September 10, 2021

By Barbara Obstoj-Cardwell

Significant news last week included Swiss pharma giant Novartis deciding to halt a trial of its iscalimab in the prevention of organ rejection in kidney transplant patients as it showed less efficacy than tacrolimus. US biotech BioMarin suffered a setback last Monday, when the Food and Drug Administration issued a clinical hold on the Phase I/II trial of its phenylketonuria candidate BMN 307. Roche’s Genentech unit signed a deal that could cost it more than $3 billion with US cell therapy specialist Adaptimmune. And last Wednesday, France’s Sanofi announced its fourth M&A deal this year, agreeing a $1.9 billion acquisition of US biopharma company Kadmon Holdings and its recently FDA-approved transplant drug Rezurock.

Novartis pushes on with iscalimab after transplant disappointment