An Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. decision to cut ties with Moderna Therapeutics Inc., Blueprint Medicines Corp. and Arbutus Biopharma Corp. led an eventful day of biopharma earnings reports, shaped by better-than-expected results at the rare disease specialist.

The first U.S. success in using CRISPR/Cas9 to gene edit human embryos has taken place at Oregon Health and Science University, according a report in MIT Technology Review.

DUBLIN – Bavarian Nordic A/S has landed another vaccine development deal with Johnson & Johnson, an alliance worth up to $879 million covering the use of its modified vaccinia ankara (MVA-BN) technology in the development of vaccines against HIV-1 and hepatitis B virus (HBV). Kvistgaard, Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic is receiving $10 million of the total as an up-front payment and another $33 million as an equity investment.

Trovagene Inc., of San Diego, said the FDA approved its IND for PCM-075, a polo-like kinase 1 inhibitor, to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Allena Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newton, Mass., said the European Commission has granted orphan drug designation to Allena's investigational product, ALLN-177, Bacillus subtilis oxalate decarboxylase, for the treatment of primary hyperoxaluria (PH), a condition characterized by markedly elevated urinary oxalate excretion.

Sienna Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Westlake Village, Calif., priced its IPO of about 4.3 million shares at $15 each. The company also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 650,000 shares of common stock at the IPO price.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s '018 patent is unenforceable due to the Tarrytown, N.Y., company's inequitable conduct in prosecuting the patent, which relates to using large DNA vectors to target and modify endogenous genes and chromosomal loci in eukaryotic cells. A practical use of the technology is to target and modify specific genes in mice so the mice develop antibodies that can be used by humans.

Precithera Inc. completed a series A financing of C$36 million (US$29 million) from an investor syndicate that included Sanderling Ventures, Arix Bioscience Ltd., Fonds de solidarité FTQ, CTI Life Sciences and Emerillon Capital.

HONG KONG – After more than a decade of development, Tissuegene Inc. and its Asia licensee, Kolon Life Science Inc., received approval from South Korean regulatory authorities to market Invossa-K, a gene therapy for degenerative arthritis.