• 3SBio Inc., of Shenyang, China, said its shareholders voted in favor of the proposal to merge with Decade Sunshine Ltd. The merger would result in 3SBio becoming a privately held subsidiary of Decade Sunshine, with its American depository shares no longer listed on Nasdaq. The company's board previously recommended that shareholders vote to authorize the merger, and the parties expect to complete the deal as soon as practicable.

• AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said in an SEC filing that it was informed by partner Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, that Astellas no longer intends to submit a marketing authorization application to the European Medicines Agency for tivozanib for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Astellas also told AVEO it does not intend to fund any future trials in RCC under the firms' strategic collaboration inked in February 2011. The move comes less than a month after the FDA's Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted against the adequacy of tivozanib in RCC based on a single Phase III trial. AVEO said it is evaluating the effects of Astellas' decision. Shares of the company (NASDAQ:AVEO) gained 1 cent to close Friday at $2.71. The stock has lost about 65 percent of its value since the briefing documents posted ahead of the ODAC meeting raised questions on the drug's approvability based on a single trial. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 17, 2011, and May 3, 2013.)

• Medivation Inc., of San Francisco, said partner Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, submitted an application for marketing approval in Japan for enzalutamide in prostate cancer. The oral, androgen receptor signaling inhibitor previously gained approval in the U.S., where it is marketed as Xtandi. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 4, 2012.)

• Norgine BV, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, said the Australian assessment body, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, recommended the use of non-antibiotic antibacterial drug Xifaxan 550 mg in the prevention of the recurrence of hepatic encephalopathy where other treatments have failed or are contraindicated. Norgine holds marketing rights to Xifaxan in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK. Xifaxan is marketed in the U.S. by Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Raleigh, N.C.

• Sangamo BioSciences Inc., of Richmond, Calif., said the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine granted the firm a $6.4 million Strategic Partnership Award to develop a potentially curative ZFP therapeutic for beta-thalassemia based on the application of its zinc finger nuclease gene-editing technology in hematopoietic stem cells. The four-year grant provides matching funds for preclinical work that will support an investigational new drug application and a Phase I trial in transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia patients.

• Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, said its main operating subsidiary, Sinovac Beijing, obtained a GMP certificate from the China State and Food Administration for its vaccines, its Haidian district bulk production plants and its Changping filing and packaging facility. It covers vaccines including Sinovac's hepatitis A vaccine, hepatitis A and B combined vaccine, influenza vaccine, pandemic influenza vaccine and H1N1 influenza vaccine and is valid for five years as of April 17, 2013.