Takeda eyes Shire takeover

The Japanese pharma has until April 25 to announce whether it intends to submit a formal offer for the Irish specialty pharma.

By Jacob Bell • March 28, 2018

GSK buys Novartis stake in consumer business for $13B

Days after dropping its bid for Pfizer's consumer unit, GSK solidified full ownership of a joint venture set up in an asset swap with Novartis.

By Ned Pagliarulo • March 27, 2018

Prescribed Reading: AbbVie disappoints; Regeneron deals in genes

Investors questioned AbbVie's strategy in oncology after a clinical miss. Elsewhere, Regeneron partnered with Alnylam to probe the potential of a genetic discovery.

By Lisa LaMotta • March 23, 2018

Regeneron, Alnylam partner to turn discovery into new drugs for NASH

Scientists at Regeneron's labs found a genetic variant linked to lower risk of liver disease — a target that could be ideally suited for Alnylam's RNAi tech.

By Ned Pagliarulo • March 22, 2018

SemaThera inks deal for China and Japan

A diabetes eye drug deal pushes SemaThera towards the Asian market and provides financing for clinical trials. 

By Suzanne Elvidge • March 22, 2018

Celgene picks up early neuro drugs in Prothena deal

A $150 million upfront payment gives Celgene access to three candidates, boosting its presence in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

By Lisa LaMotta • March 21, 2018

Mundipharma inks third biosimilar deal with Celltrion

The European conglomerate will commercialize the South Korean company's copycat version of Herceptin.

By Lisa LaMotta • March 20, 2018

Novartis taps Harvard tech to advance cancer immunotherapy efforts

Outside of cell therapy, Novartis trails in immuno-oncology. But, as its deal with Harvard shows, it aims to lead in developing second-generation approaches. 

By Randi Hernandez • March 20, 2018

J&J to sell Lifescan, dropping out of diabetes diagnostics

The pharma giant intends to divest its Lifescan unit to a private investment firm for $2.1 billion.

By Suzanne Elvidge • March 19, 2018

Lundbeck bulks up neuro pipeline with Prexton buy

As part of the deal, Lundbeck will add a first-in-class small-molecule compound, foliglurax, to its growing CNS repertoire.

By Randi Hernandez • March 16, 2018

Prescribed Reading: Neuro's comeback tour

Activity in the neuroscience space spiked higher, with a flurry of licensing deals highlighting BioPharma Dive's prediction the field is ready for a resurgence.

By Lisa LaMotta • March 16, 2018

Biohaven bullish on CGRP market with new Bristol-Myers terms

Rather than pay excessive royalties later, Biohaven will hand over a $50 million upfront payment financed by a private placement.

By Randi Hernandez • March 13, 2018

WuXi Biologics, Adagene ally to address hard-to-manufacture antibodies

Conventional approaches to make drug product for antibody-based medicines is not always sufficient — a challenge the companies seek to address.

By Randi Hernandez • March 9, 2018

CytomX loses out on $264M as Pfizer exits deal

Years of Probody Drug Conjugate research hadn't led to any clinical-stage programs, pushing the big pharma to cut ties with CytomX.

By Jacob Bell • March 9, 2018

Prescribed Reading: Bold comments from Gottlieb, PBMs get the spotlight

Against the backdrop of Cigna's planned deal to buy Express Scripts, the FDA chief sharply criticized bad behavior from players involved in drug pricing.

By Lisa LaMotta • March 9, 2018

Sanofi taps Evotec for infectious disease discovery

The French pharma will license out 10 infectious disease assets to Evotec, transferring about 100 R&D staff to the German drug discovery company.

By Randi Hernandez • March 8, 2018

Cigna acquiring Express Scripts in $67B deal

It's the latest in vertical integration across the industry, after regulators blocked horizontal tie-ups in recent years.

By Shannon Muchmore • March 8, 2018

Gottlieb takes aim at payers, pharmas for blocking biosimilars

The FDA chief lambasted PBMs, insurers and branded drugmakers for allegedly blocking market entry of the copycat biologics.

By Lisa LaMotta , David Lim • March 8, 2018

Roivant begins latest 'Vant' with Ligand deal

New diabetes company Metavant will launch after paying $20 million upfront for a glucagon receptor agonist.

By Lisa LaMotta • March 7, 2018

Celgene shells out $101M upfront in latest deal

The big biotech inked a development deal with Vividion Therapeutics to discover small molecule drugs for a range of therapeutic areas.

By Lisa LaMotta • March 5, 2018

Prescribed Reading: Sketchy subgroup analyses, puzzling probes

Several companies used creative thinking when evaluating clinical trial results, while others played the game of excluding details when informing investors.

By Lisa LaMotta • March 2, 2018

Mylan partners with Revance to develop a Botox biosimilar

Allergan's ever-growing Botox franchise is an attractive target, yet the drug best known for erasing wrinkles has withstood competitive threats before.

By Ned Pagliarulo • March 1, 2018

Akorn tanks as puzzling probe threatens Fresenius deal

The companies are looking into allegations that Akorn breached data integrity requirements. If they prove true, Fresenius said it could pull out of the deal.

By Jacob Bell • Feb. 27, 2018

Pharma moves beyond Seres hangover in microbiome space

While there have been no major acquisitions of microbiome-focused companies, early research has attracted a wealth of big pharma dollars.

By Lisa LaMotta • Feb. 26, 2018

Prescribed Reading: Deals sputter in, warning letter frenzy

Small bolt-on deals and acquisitions keep trickling in, unloved therapeutic areas get positive data, and CDER warnings letters rise under Gottlieb. 

By Lisa LaMotta • Feb. 23, 2018