Eli Lilly puts up $100M in RNAi deal with Dicerna

With plans to collaborate on more than 10 targets, the agreement is rich in milestone payments that could reach in the billions for Dicerna.

By Andrew Dunn • Oct. 29, 2018

Pfizer, Novartis partner in hunt to find drugs for NASH

Estimates of prevalence of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis are all over the map, but the pact is more evidence pharma sees a potentially lucrative market.

By Ned Pagliarulo • Oct. 29, 2018

AbbVie takes over cystic fibrosis drugs from Galapagos

It's a risky bet that the experimental treatments from Galapagos can outflank market leader Vertex's dominant position.

By Suzanne Elvidge • Oct. 26, 2018

Keeping up deal frenzy, Alexion strikes an RNAi pact

An agreement that could be worth more than $600 million will add two preclinical RNAi molecules from Dicerna to Alexion's pipeline.

By Andrew Dunn • Oct. 24, 2018

AstraZeneca picks up immunotherapy drugs, equity stake in Innate deal

Through the deal, AstraZeneca will pick up full rights to an anti-NKG2A antibody that had originally drawn the pharma's interest in 2015.

By Suzanne Elvidge • Oct. 24, 2018

AbbVie reaches 5th deal to secure Humira through 2023

Through a settlement with AbbVie, Fresenius Kabi's copycat biologic won't launch in the U.S. until late 2023, pending it securing FDA approval by then. 

By Suzanne Elvidge • Oct. 19, 2018

Novartis buys Endocyte for $2.1B in latest deal under CEO Narasimhan

The acquisition, announced as Novartis reported third quarter earnings, adds another radioligand therapy to the Swiss pharma's pipeline. 

By Ned Pagliarulo • Oct. 18, 2018

DOJ clears CVS-Aetna union

Approval of the $69 billion deal comes with a condition to sell Aetna's Medicare Part D business. 

By Samantha Liss • Oct. 10, 2018

Roche, Ionis focusing on eye disease through new deal

On the heels of their Huntington's disease collaboration, the companies are teaming up again — this time on a therapy targeting the immune system.

By Jacob Bell • Oct. 10, 2018

Lonza boosts ADC manufacturing with new investment

Antibody-drug conjugates have occupied a corner of the biologic market for years. Lonza, though, is betting on faster growth.

By Suzanne Elvidge • Oct. 10, 2018

Novo stands up stem cell manufacturing site in California

Licensed from Asterias, the plant will supply stem cell-based therapies for clinical research by the Danish drugmaker.

By Suzanne Elvidge • Oct. 4, 2018

J&J bets billions on RNA interference

A deal with Arrowhead potentially worth $3.75 billion gives J&J access to an investigational hepatitis B treatment and up to three more RNAi therapeutics.

By Jacob Bell • Oct. 4, 2018

Novartis, GSK ink deals with Boston biotech

The two deals more than double the size of Boston Pharmaceuticals' drug pipeline to 15 candidates.

By Andrew Dunn • Oct. 3, 2018

Aduro loses valuable partner as J&J exits licensing deals

By terminating a trio of licensing deals focused on cancer vaccines, J&J puts pressure on Aduro to succeed in its other big pharma partnerships.

By Jacob Bell • Oct. 2, 2018

Akorn falls after judge rules Fresenius can exit takeover

Shares of the would-be takeover target were down more than 50% as Judge Travis Laster ruled that "[a]ny second thoughts that Fresenius had about the Merger Agreement were justified by unexpected events at Akorn."

By Jacob Bell • Oct. 1, 2018

Roche jumps on Tregs trend with a potential $750M deal

The Swiss pharma believes a preclinical therapy from Tusk Therapeutics to be "the most advanced asset to test" the regulatory T cell​ hypothesis.

By Andrew Dunn • Sept. 28, 2018

Novartis taps Cellular Biomedicines to supply Kymriah in China

The biotech will be in charge of manufacturing the CAR-T therapy, while Novartis helms distribution, regulatory and marketing efforts in China.

By Jacob Bell • Sept. 27, 2018

J&J gives up on Geron's cancer drug

Geron, which saw shares fall 70% by market's open Thursday, said it will power on with imetelstat's development, with a Phase 3 testing planned for mid-2019.

By Andrew Dunn • Sept. 27, 2018

Aetna sells Medicare Part D business to WellCare subsidiary

The deal is meant to grease the wheels for approval of the payer's pending $69 billion acquisition by CVS.

By Samantha Liss • Sept. 27, 2018

New York regulator warns CVS-Aetna merger could raise prices

The state's top financial watchdog said the pharmacy chain's PBM would have an incentive to give the largest drug discounts to Aetna members.

By Samantha Liss • Sept. 26, 2018

Alexion to buy Syntimmune in potential $1.2B deal

The biotech will spend $400 million upfront to expand its pipeline with a rare disease drug candidate currently in Phase 1b/2a testing.

By Andrew Dunn • Sept. 26, 2018

Narcan developer secures grant for counter to opioid weaponization

BARDA is concerned that repeat doses of naloxone would not be available in a large-scale terrorist attack involving weaponized opioids. So it's tapped Opiant to develop a long-acting opioid overdose agent. 

By Suzanne Elvidge • Sept. 21, 2018

Amicus expands into gene therapy with $100M deal

Acquiring Celenex, a spinout from Nationwide's Children Hospital, will give the rare disease biotech a slate of 10 mostly preclinical gene therapy candidates.

By Ned Pagliarulo • Sept. 20, 2018

Why payers are gobbling up PBMs

On Monday the Justice Department gave its blessing to a $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts by Cigna.

By Samantha Liss • Sept. 18, 2018

Allergan's Bonti buy part of plan to double medical aesthetics business

Seeing a growing opportunity, Allergan is expanding its pipeline at the same time as it ups spending on DTC marketing for products like Botox.

By Ned Pagliarulo • Sept. 14, 2018