BEIJING – Shanghai-based Visen Pharmaceuticals is pushing its long-acting growth hormone therapy, which is also the first of its kind in China, one step closer to the NDA-stage after receiving clearance from Chinese regulators this week to start a phase III trial.

An already validated approach with Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc.'s radioimaging agent for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) might have presaged the victory, but that didn't stop Wall Street from rewarding the shares handsomely, and the stock (NYSE:NAVB) closed Tuesday at $1.10, up 32 cents or almost 41.5%, having traded as high as $1.36.

HONG KONG – South Korean biopharma Virocure Inc., based in Seoul, recently founded a local corporation in Brisbane, Australia. The new company, Virocure Australia Pty Ltd., will facilitate a phase I trial of cancer drug RC-402 in Australia.

BOSTON – Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center presented encouraging, though very early, data on Merus NV's bispecific antibody MCLA-128 for the treatment of patients with NRG-1 gene fusions at the AACR-NCI-EORTC Molecular Targets meeting on Sunday.

LONDON – Pfizer Inc. is taking further steps to distinguish its third-generation anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, Lorbrena, from the rest of the field, funding a pan-European trial that will use liquid biopsies to track the resistance profile of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC).

A late-stage test of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s oral suspension of the steroid budesonide for the treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) achieved both its co-primary endpoints, improving histologic and dysphagia symptom responses vs. placebo during the first pivotal phase III study of an EoE treatment ever to be reported in the U.S. The study, part of the largest EoE clinical program globally to date, also met secondary endpoints, including improvements from baseline to final treatment as measured by an established patient-reported outcome measurement.

As TG Therapeutics Inc.'s phase IIb win in the follicular lymphoma (FL) cohort of the Unity-NHL pivotal experiment testing umbralisib charmed Wall Street, CEO Michael Weiss told investors that the New York-based company is "completely committed to getting our marginal zone lymphoma [MZL] filing in on time and getting to the market" soon. Nobody's forgetting about the opportunity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), either.

With Stifel analysts recently setting a $41 price target for Urogen Pharma Ltd. and interim data in hand from the trial in bladder cancer with UGN-102, hopes are high that the drug's approach – having already proved its mettle in UGN-101 against low-grade upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) – will yield durable results. Shares (NASDAQ:URGN) have been trading at around $22, closing Friday at $21.97.

Despite Provention Bio Inc.'s phase IIa top-line data showing PRV-6527 in Crohn's disease did not differentiate from placebo, the company's stock was bumped back less than 1% on Tuesday as it continued to ride high after June's massive leap on heartening data about the company's type 1 diabetes trial of teplizumab.