Look back at pharma news in week to April 20

Mergers and acquisitions were again in the spotlight last week, first with Shire’s decision to offload its non-core oncology business to France’s Servier for $2.4 billion in cash, which prompted questions on what Takeda, which had expressed interest in buying Shire, and last week quickly fired off four escalating offers for the company. Among licensing deals, Biogen expanded its collaboration with Ionis Pharmaceuticals on neurological diseases. On the research front, Merck & Co presented ‘practice-changing’ new data on Keytruda in lung cancer, and in terms of regulatory news, there was Food and Drug Administration approval for Ultragenyx’ rare disease drug Crysvita.

Shire’s oncology exit weighs on potential Takeda bid

Ireland-headquartered rare disease specialist Shire is backing out of cancer drugs, announcing Monday the  sale of its oncology business to French pharma Servier for $2.4 billion in cash. Servier's acquisition is arguably just as impactful to Takeda as it is to Shire, noted Jacob Bell on BioPharma Dive’s Insight.