HONG KONG – Daejeon, South Korea-based Alteogen Inc. said that it has signed a licensing agreement with Brazil's Cristália Produtos Químicos Farmacêuticos Ltd. to jointly develop and commercialize Alteogen's ALT-P1, a persistent growth hormone for children.

Calling the tie "magic," Pfizer Inc. CEO Albert Bourla defended his firm's decision to spin off its Upjohn unit and merge in an all-stock deal with Mylan N.V., creating a new entity to be named later with pro forma revenues as high as $20 billion. "We have a commercial footprint that is very much focused on China, on emerging markets," he said, which will help Mylan.

Shares of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:LXRX) fell 70.3% Monday to $1.69 as Sanofi SA terminated a $1.7 billion diabetes collaboration with the company. The decision followed two trials in which Zynquista (sotagliflozin), a dual SGLT inhibitor, failed to make a statistically significant dent in blood sugar control in patients with chronic kidney disease, a common result of diabetes.

DUBLIN – Zambon SpA is acquiring Breath Therapeutics BV for €140 million (US$155.8 million) up front plus up to €360 million more in regulatory and commercial milestones linked to the progress of Breath's drug-device combo, which is currently in phase III development for bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), a fatal form of airway inflammation that can arise in lung transplant recipients.

Durect Corp. (NASDAQ: DRXX) got a solid bump after announcing it granted Gilead Sciences Inc. exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize a long-acting injectable HIV product created with Durect's platform, Saber, in a deal that could generate more than $300 million for Durect.

LONDON – Silence Therapeutics plc has finally secured a deal to transform its fortunes, signing up Mallinckrodt plc in a potential $693 million-per-asset collaboration to develop siRNA therapeutics that block the complement inflammatory cascade.

HONG KONG – Celltrion Inc., of South Korea, and Hong Kong-based conglomerate Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd. said they have built a joint venture named Vcell Healthcare Ltd., geared toward the Chinese market. 

Seongnam, Korea-based Bridge Biotherapeutics Inc. nailed down a deal with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (BI) to develop the former's phase I autotaxin (ATX) inhibitor, BBT-877, for fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

HONG KONG – Singaporean biotech company Aum Biosciences Pte. Ltd. has in-licensed a potentially first-in-class PIM/PI3K/mTOR inhibitor from Inflection Biosciences Ltd., of Dublin and London, to develop it globally to treat a wide range of cancers.

Astellas Pharma Inc. and Frequency Therapeutics Inc. have agreed to develop and commercialize Frequency's regenerative therapeutic candidate, FX-322, to treat sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).