Shionogi & Co. said it plans to acquire Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) subsidiaries Torii Pharmaceutical Co. and Akros Pharma Inc. for ¥160 billion (US$1.1 billion) to expand its global R&D business. The move will see JT exit the pharma business and hand over all pharma related assets to Shionogi, including New Jersey-headquartered subsidiary Akros Pharma Inc. Around 700 employees from JT’s pharma division will transfer to Shionogi. Roughly 80 of those employees specialize in AI drug discovery.

Data in Revolution’s first-quarter report boost shares

Shares of Revolution Medicines Inc. (NASDAQ:RVMD) were trading at $42.17, up $4.51, or almost 12%, after the company provided its first-quarter update. The firm highlighted, among other things, execution of two ongoing phase III trials with daraxonrasib. The company aims to complete enrollment of the Rasolute 302 experiment in pancreatic cancer this year. Daraxonrasib (RMC-6236) is a tri-complex inhibitor that targets multiple RAS mutations, including KRAS G12C, by disrupting the signaling pathways that promote tumor growth.

Haya doing well with a $65M series A for precision medicine

Following last fall’s $1 billion development deal with Eli Lilly and Co., precision medicine company Haya Therapeutics SA has raised $65 million in a series A. Lilly is a part of the syndicate that pitched in to the funding, which was led by Sofinnova Partners and Earlybird Venture Capital. In September 2024, Haya joined with Lilly in a deal that could bring in up to $1 billion in milestones by using its long non-coding RNA platform to find targets in obesity and related metabolic disorders.

US legal issues to track in pharma, biotech: Bio Korea 2025

Ongoing policy issues in the U.S., including the Inflation Reduction Act and recent proposals under President Donald Trump’s administration, have wide ranging implications for the global biopharmaceutical industry, speakers at Bio Korea 2025 said May 8, including a heightened need for all biotechs to draft regulatory strategies.

Organoids plus gene editing bring insights into pediatric metabolic disease

“I’m a pediatrician in metabolic diseases, and every day in my clinical work I’m confronted with our lack in effective therapies for our patients.” That was the sobering introduction by Sabine Fuchs in her talk at the 2025 Congress of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Amsterdam this week. The nature of metabolic diseases makes it difficult to develop treatments for them. “There are over 1,500 diseases known by now, and it is just very difficult to develop therapies for each and every individual rare disease.”

Sun shines on Leqselvi at Federal Circuit

Planting seed money and “wishing” is not enough to claim “irreparable harm” to secure a preliminary injunction or to establish the standing required to appeal a patent board decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled yesterday in two precedent-setting decisions involving Incyte Corp. and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Both decisions were wins for Sun, as the one lifted a preliminary injunction preventing an at-risk launch of the company’s hair loss treatment, Leqselvi, an oral deuterated ruxolitinib product. The other decision continues to protect a Sun patent teaching a method of treating hair loss disorders like alopecia areata using precise dosages of deuterated analogues of ruxolitinib.

Also in the news

Adcentrx, Altesa, Apotex, Astrazeneca, Beacon, Beigene, Biovaxys, Boehringer Ingelheim, C4, Crispr, Daewon, Daiichi Sankyo, Denali, Dr. Falk, Formosa, Gilead, Ipsen, Ironwood, Johnson & Johnson, Marea, Neurocrine, Omeros, Orogen, Palatin, Paq, Paradigm, Pasithea, Perfuse, Phio, PRM, Sona, Theriva, Tiumbio, Triana, Trogenix, Urogen, Vertex, Viverita, Voyager, Zyus