With Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s acquisition of Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc. for about $930 million up front, Alexion expands and diversifies its pipeline into familiar territory – treating complement-mediated diseases. Blue Bell, Pa.-based Achillion is developing oral, small-molecule factor D inhibitors for treating complement alternative pathway-mediated rare diseases, including paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and C3 glomerulopathy.

PERTH, Australia – Australia's Admedus Ltd. has sold its Cardiocel and Vascucel patch business to U.S-based LeMaitre Vascular for up to AU$36.2 million (US$24.5 million), to include an AU$22.8 million up-front cash payment.

Abbott Laboratories and Tandem Diabetes Care Inc. said Tuesday that they plan to develop and commercialize a line of integrated diabetes products based on Abbott's glucose sending technology and Tandem's insulin delivery systems. The collaboration comes as the U.S. FDA is encouraging medical device manufacturers to consider the ability to share and use information safely and effectively in the development and design of connected devices.

Mayo Clinic has entered a 10-year partnership with Google "to expand on the more than 200 projects already incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning," Mayo Chief Medical Information Officer Steve Peters told BioWorld MedTech. The Rochester, Minn.-based health care organization expects Google's expertise in data science and search technology will help the clinic improve treatment and outcomes by developing machine learning models.

Days after going public, Viela Bio Inc. nailed down a deal with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. to develop and commercialize Viela’s humanized anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody, inebilizumab, in nine Asia regions for the rare disease called neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), as well as other potential future indications.

HONG KONG – Insilico Medicine Hong Kong Ltd. has inked a two-program drug discovery collaboration agreement with Jiangsu Chia Tai Fenghai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (CTFH), of Jiangsu, China. The deal will focus on drug discovery and development for previously undruggable oncology targets through Insilico's artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled platform.

DUBLIN – Shareholders in Allergan plc voted with alacrity to approve Abbvie Inc.'s $63 billion takeover of the Botox maker at an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin Monday. Investors voted 99.64% in favor, with just .36% voting against. Although the outcome was never in any doubt, an unexpected, last-minute €572 million (US$631 million) charge on the transaction, courtesy of the Irish government, is likely to have swayed all but the most hardened holdouts to cast their votes in favor of the deal, lest Abbvie were to get cold feet.

The number of biopharma deals and mergers and acquisitions completed are on a downward slide quarter-by-quarter, although when taken as a whole, the industry in 2019 has completed as many transactions and is hitting a higher deal value than the year before, while M&A values are up by 32%.

The number of biopharma deals and mergers and acquisitions completed are on a downward slide quarter-by-quarter, although when taken as a whole, the industry in 2019 has completed as many transactions and is hitting a higher deal value than the year before, while M&A values are up by 32%.

DUBLIN – Shares in Ra Pharmaceuticals Inc. doubled Thursday as UCB SA made a $48-per-share bid that values the company at about $2.5 billion, or about $2.1 billion net of Ra’s cash.