10 October 2024 Machine learning-enabled drug discovery and development company insitro has announced the execution of three strategic agreements with Eli Lilly.
Danish biosciences firm Chr Hansen Holding and Swiss pharmaceutical and biotech ingredient supplier Lonza have signed an agreement to establish a 50/50 joint venture to pioneer the live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) industry and position themselves as the leading contract development and manufacturing partner (CDMO) for biotech and pharma customers. 3 April 2019
Results of the Phase III ADMIRAL clinical trial comparing Xospata (gilteritinib) to salvage chemotherapy in adult patients with relapsed or refractory (resistant to treatment) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a FLT3 mutation were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, which suggest the drug is even better than it seemed when it secured accelerated US approval last November. 2 April 2019
SpringWorks Therapeutics, the start-up set up by US pharma giant Pfizer to take forward a number of drug programs, has raised $125 million in a Series B financing. 2 April 2019
China’s state council last August announced reform goals, which included speeding up the approval process for imported drugs, and seeking to include more oncology drugs in the national reimbursement drug list. 2 April 2019
Just a year after being acquired in an $8.7 billion deal by Swiss pharma giant Novartis, AveXis has signed an agreement to purchase an advanced biologics therapy manufacturing campus in Longmont, Colorado, USA. 2 April 2019
US pharma giant Merck & Co has announced the first-time presentation of results from a post-hoc analysis of patients with liver or brain metastases from the Phase III KEYNOTE-189 trial. 1 April 2019
The European Commission has granted the Marketing Authorization for Ajovy (fremanezumab) 225mg solution for injection in pre-filled syringe for the prophylaxis of migraine in adults who have at least four migraine days per month. 1 April 2019
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted a Marketing Authorization Line Extension Application for subcutaneous (SC) Entyvio (vedolizumab) for maintenance therapy in moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn’s disease (CD). 1 April 2019
A joint research project between Japanese drugmaker Chugai Pharmaceutical and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore (A*STAR) has been awarded a grant by the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund). 1 April 2019
Privately-owned German pharma major Boehringer Ingelheim has boasted that it is the first company to develop a potent inhibitor targeting a critical node of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. 1 April 2019
Independent proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis & Co have recommend that Bristol-Myers Squibb shareholders vote “FOR” the approval of the issuance of shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb common stock in connection with the company’s pending merger with US biotech firm Celgene. 30 March 2019
March has not been a happy month for the Alzheimer’s disease research partnership involving Japanese drugmaker Eisai and US biotech Biogen, with the Phase III failure of aducanumab. 29 March 2019
Privately-held German firm Boehringer Ingelheim has acquired Berlin-based biotech ICD Therapeutics for an undisclosed sum, including its innovative MacroDel biologics delivery platform. 29 March 2019
Chinese biologics contract manufacturing organization (CMO) WuXi Biologics will continue to invest in capacity expansion in the USA and European Union to speed up its business growth, said the firm’s chief executive Chris Chen at a media conference held in Shanghai this month, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent Wang Fangqing. 29 March 2019
Belgium-based biotech firm Galapagos is celebrating its 20-year anniversary with positive Phase III data on lead product candidate filgotinib. 29 March 2019
Pursuing its ambitions as a leader in oncology, AstraZeneca has inked a major deal, agreeing to pay as much as $6.9 billion to buy into a promising Japanese cancer treatment. 29 March 2019
Belgium’s UCB has won an expansion to the label for Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) in the USA, to include certain adults with active non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA). 29 March 2019
The announcement of preliminary data from a Phase III clinical trial evaluating casimersen and golodirsen in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients amenable to skipping exons 45 and 53, respectively saw shares of Sarepta Therapeutics rise, 29 March 2019
Danish dermatology specialist Leo Pharma has revealed plans to cut 200 jobs, marking the company’s fourth workforce reduction since 2022. 11 October 2024
Booster Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering a new class of proteasome activator medicines to treat neurodegenerative and other diseases, has launched with the support of a $15 million financing. 11 October 2024
German cancer specialist Immatics has announced the pricing of its $150 million public offering, with Jefferies, BofA Securities, and Leerink acting as joint book runners. 11 October 2024
The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved Pfizer and BioNTech's latest COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty (KP.2). 11 October 2024
In what Astella Pharma calls “a landmark decision for advanced bladder cancer patients,” the Japanese drugmaker gained approval in the UK for its treatment regimen. 10 October 2024
Nanoscope Therapeutics says that, following a productive FDA meeting with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its clinical program evaluating MCO-010 for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), the company will commence with submission of a Biologics License Application (BLA) in the first quarter of 2025. 10 October 2024
US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson’s Tecvayli (teclistamab) has been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a first-line option to treat myeloma in England and Wales. 10 October 2024
China’s Quantum Pharmaceuticals has announced a significant licensing agreement between its biologics-focused subsidiary, Ailux Biologics, and Johnson & Johnson. 10 October 2024
USA-based Kezar Life Sciences announced this week that it was pausing its Phase IIb PALIZADE trial evaluating zetomipzomib in lupus nephritis (LN) following the deaths of four patients. 10 October 2024
Advances in gene editing, such as the FDA approval of Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel) in December 2023 for the treatment of beta thalassemia and sickle cell disease, have fueled significant interest in innovative epigenetic drugs. 10 October 2024
Gene therapy start-up GEMMA Biotherapeutics (GEMMABio) has announced a significant partnership with Brazil's Fiocruz, a key supplier for the Brazilian Ministry of Health. 10 October 2024
California’s Arda Therapeutics, a biotech focused on targeted cell depletion therapies for chronic diseases, has announced the successful completion of a $43 million Series A financing round. 9 October 2024
Purespring Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on transforming the treatment of kidney diseases, has raised £80 million ($105 million) in a Series B financing. 9 October 2024
German family-owned pharma major Boehringer Ingelheim and USA-based Circle Pharma (have entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with the shared goal to develop a first-in-class cyclin inhibitor that can halt the growth of cancer cells potentially offering hope to those living with hard-to-treat cancers. 9 October 2024