Look back at pharma news in the week to January 17, 2020

By Barbara Obstoj-Cardwell. Editor

Licensing featured in the news last week, with Germany’s MorphoSys announcing a deal with USA-based Incyte to commercialize its B-cell malignancies candidate tafasitamab, and Biogen taking over an early-stage drug from Pfizer - PF-05251749 - which has potential for treating sleep disorders associated with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Also, UK-based Adaptimmune entered into a lucrative collaboration with Japan’s Astellas Pharma on cancer research. Elsewhere, Swiss giant Novartis’ novel arrangement with the UK’s National Health Service for access to its cardiovascular drug inclisiran attracted a fair amount of attention. On the M&A front, German biotech BioNTech said last Thursday it was buying USA-based Neon Therapeutics to boost its T-cell pipeline.

Solid deal with MorphoSys, but may not be viewed as transformative