Look back at pharma news in the week to May 1, 2020

3 May 2020

By Barbara Obstoj-Cardwell. Editor

Deal-making news last week included Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical’s collaboration with ProThera Biologics to develop a novel plasma-based IAIP therapy for acute inflammatory conditions. Research news featured a disappointment for Blueprint Medicines with the release of top-line Phase III results for its gastrointestinal stroma tumor (GIST) drug Ayvakit (avapritinib) that failed. Meantime, Sanofi and partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals presented data on their trial of the repurposed drug Kevzara as a potential therapy for COVID-19, as well as long-awaited positive data for Gilead Sciences’ anti-viral drug remdesivir in the COVID-19 setting and also from the NIAID study of the drug. Elsewhere, news of the US Food and Drug Administration approval for Neurocrine’s Parkinson’s disease drug Ongentys was welcome, but the decision to not launch the drug immediately due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while partly expected, was not.

Takeda collaborates with ProThera

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