Industry News

Biotech

• Medivir sells Chinese rights to hepatitis C drug to Ascletis 2017/08/18
  Medivir has offloaded the Chinese rights to its early-stage hepatitis C candidate to Ascletis. The deal continues the retreat from infectious diseases Medivir began after Gilead and others cornered th …
• Biotech deals down by half and could be lowest since 2013: report 2017/08/18
  We all know that biotech M&A activity has been pretty sluggish in 2017, but new stats out from Bloomberg show just how quiet things have been.
• Five Prime names ex-Genentech I-O specialist research SVP 2017/08/18
  Five Prime Therapeutics has appointed Bryan Irving, Ph.D., as its SVP of research. Irving made his name in the industry in a decadelong stint at Genentech, during which he performed research that gave …
• Arcus adds WuXi Biologics-developed PD-1 drug under $816M deal 2017/08/18
  Just weeks after Celgene got a PD-1 drug from China’s BeiGene, Arcus Biosciences inked an $816 million deal to get a PD-1 candidate WuXi Biologics had developed under a contract with Chinese firm Glor …
• Chutes & Ladders—Novartis lures UCSF cardiovascular scientist Coughlin 2017/08/17
  UCSF cardiovascular research leader Shaun Coughlin will join the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novo Nordisk's China GM was promoted to lead the company's corporate operations, …

Medical Devices

• Medivir sells Chinese rights to hepatitis C drug to Ascletis 2017/08/18
  Medivir has offloaded the Chinese rights to its early-stage hepatitis C candidate to Ascletis. The deal continues the retreat from infectious diseases Medivir began after Gilead and others cornered th …
• Biotech deals down by half and could be lowest since 2013: report 2017/08/18
  We all know that biotech M&A activity has been pretty sluggish in 2017, but new stats out from Bloomberg show just how quiet things have been.
• Five Prime names ex-Genentech I-O specialist research SVP 2017/08/18
  Five Prime Therapeutics has appointed Bryan Irving, Ph.D., as its SVP of research. Irving made his name in the industry in a decadelong stint at Genentech, during which he performed research that gave …
• Arcus adds WuXi Biologics-developed PD-1 drug under $816M deal 2017/08/18
  Just weeks after Celgene got a PD-1 drug from China’s BeiGene, Arcus Biosciences inked an $816 million deal to get a PD-1 candidate WuXi Biologics had developed under a contract with Chinese firm Glor …
• Chutes & Ladders—Novartis lures UCSF cardiovascular scientist Coughlin 2017/08/17
  UCSF cardiovascular research leader Shaun Coughlin will join the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novo Nordisk's China GM was promoted to lead the company's corporate operations, …

Pharma

• Thank you, Ken Frazier, for a mission impossible: Making pharma look good 2017/08/18
  Merck CEO Ken Frazier's resignation from the president's manufacturing council seems to have bumped up the reputation of Frazier, Merck and the pharma industry at a time when pharma's r …
• FiercePharmaAsia—Zai Lab’s $115M IPO, Takeda-Stanford R&D deal, Chinese firms’ bids for Arbor 2017/08/18
  Pfizer alum Samantha Du's Zai Lab filed for a $115 million Nasdaq IPO to help push forward several in-licensed cancer meds in China, Takeda formed a wide-ranging drug discovery alliance with Stan …
• AstraZeneca's Lynparza, armed with new FDA nod, aims to regain share from Tesaro's Zejula 2017/08/18
  Sorry, Tesaro. Lynparza can now fight back. The AstraZeneca drug—now shared with Merck & Co.—won its new, broader approval in ovarian cancer, putting it on more even footing in its race with Tesar …
• Lawmakers dig into 'skyrocketing' MS costs with probe into 7 drugmakers 2017/08/17
  After taking a strong interest in drug prices over the last two years, Congress has been somewhat quieter on the topic over the summer. That changed on Thursday as Reps. Elijah Cummings and Peter Welc …
• Sanofi tip ends in $465M settlement between Mylan and DOJ 2017/08/17
  Despite the criticism and calls for the government to get a better deal out of Mylan, the drugmaker announced on Thursday that it finalized a settlement with the Department of Justice for $465 million …

Vaccines

• News of Note—Seqirus, Fujifilm and more 2017/08/15
  Here's other vaccine news of note for this week.
• GlaxoSmithKline opens new $56.6M vaccines plant in Scotland 2017/08/15
  GlaxoSmithKline opened its new $56.6 million vaccines plant in Montrose, Scotland, that will manufacture sterile aluminum salts and includes a microbiology lab. But the small addition comes as a much …
• Merck and GlaxoSmithKline production issues lead to global shortage of hepatitis B vaccine 2017/08/09
  A global shortage of hepatitis B vaccine has developed as both Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline deal with manufacturing issues, leading health agencies in England to ration use to those most at ris …
• News of Note—FluGen, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and The Vaccine Group 2017/08/08
  Here's other vaccine news of note for this week.
• MilliporeSigma, Baylor join together in vaccine work against neglected diseases 2017/08/08
  Merck KGaA’s MilliporeSigma and Baylor College of Medicine are teaming up to fight diseases that affect the world’s poorest people but aren’t attracting much research attention.