Look back at pharma news in the week to September 6

By Barbara Obstoj-Cardwell. Editor

Recovery from the post August lull and US Labor Day holidays kicked off last Tuesday with a not mega M&A deal – Vertex Pharma’s $950 million agreed bid for pre-clinical biotech firm Semma Therapeutics and its diabetes candidate – but nonetheless one that attracted attention. Also of note was Japanese drugmaker Sumitomo Dainippon’s offer on Friday to pay $3 billion to acquire a number of “vant” companies from Roivant Sciences. Among research news, Ardelyx thrilled investors with its Phase III results for tenapanor for people with chronic kidney disease on dialysis, and, on the pricing front, the UK’s cost-effectiveness watchdog, the NICE, on Thursday agreed to recommend Novartis’ eye disease gene therapy Luxturna.

Vertex spends nearly $1B on Semma’s unproven diabetes cell tech