News

Oncology, cardiovascular, autoimmune/anti-inflammatories and infectious diseases will be the top therapeutic areas for investment in 2015, says new research.

Merck & Co and Bristol-Myers Squibb have signed separate onco-immunology focused trial agreements with Eli Lilly to assess combinations of their rival PD-1 inhibitors with the latter’s cancer drugs.

As the recent spate of deal-making in pharma continues, Merck & Co said it is shelling out $100 million for access to Moderna’s messenger RNA Therapeutics platform to develop new antiviral vaccines and passive immunity therapies.

Mundipharma and associate Purdue Pharmaceuticals have linked up with Spain’s Esteve to develop “important next-generation products” for the management of pain.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is sticking with its stance that Dendreon’s Provenge (sipuleucel-T) is simply too expensive for use by the National Health Service in England and Wales to treat prostate cancer.

Roche has licensed an early-stage treatment for antibiotic resistance from Japan’s Meiji Seika Pharma and Fedora of Canada.

Boehringer Ingelheim is delving deeper into the hot field of immunotherapy in a research deal with Yale University to discover novel therapeutic targets that harness the immune system to fight disease. 

Big pharma was largely absent from merger and acquisition activity in 2013 but returned to vigorous deal-making last year with spending of nearly $90 billion; however, this group was outspent by specialty pharma, which deployed more than $130 billion in M&A transactions in 2014, says new research.

Johnson & Johnson is licensing an investigational inflammatory bowel disease from microbiome specialist Vedanta Biosciences

AstraZeneca has withdrawn an application to get its first-in-class ovarian cancer therapy Lynparza (olaparib) funded by the Cancer Drugs Fund in England.

Merck & Co is planning to hand in US applications for two of its flagship medicines in cancer and hepatitis C during the first half of this year.

Novartis has completed its exit from the hepatitis C arena and given back the rights to alisporivir to fellow Swiss firm Debiopharm.

Roche is paying over $1 billion to acquire a majority stake in molecular information company Foundation Medicine as part of its push towards personalised cancer care.

Sanofi and Regeneron say that regulators in Europe have agreed to review their closely-watched cholesterol drug alirocumab, which they intend to market as Praluent.

Cost regulators for the National Health Service in Scotland have closed the door to Roche’s Avastin for ovarian cancer, but six new medicines were waved through.