LONDON – "This is not about doing the easy thing, but the right thing," said David Brennan, CEO of AstraZeneca plc, at the launch of a new code of practice for pharmaceutical companies, which for the first time has been extended beyond marketing practices, to set out the terms of engagement for all pharma industry interactions with health care professionals, hospitals and patients' organizations.

• BioLineRx Ltd., of Jerusalem, closed its $15 million private placement with U.S. institutional investors. The company sold about 5.25 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at $2.86 per ADS and warrants to purchase up to 2.6 million additional ADSs at an exercise price of $3.57 each, netting BioLineRx around $14.1 million. Roth Capital Management LLC acted as sole placement agent. In other news, BioLineRx received approval from the Israeli Ministry of Health to begin a Phase II trial of BL-7040 for inflammatory bowel disease.

LONDON – Galapagos NV landed a deal with Abbott last week worth $1.35 billion, plus royalties, for its JAK1 inhibitor for rheumatoid arthritis, in an agreement the company said is the largest for a Phase II compound in the history of the industry.

• BioLineRx Ltd., of Jerusalem, reported that preclinical results demonstrated that BL-7010, a polymer intended to treat celiac disease, reduced gluten toxicity and prevented gluten-induced pathological damage to the small intestine in rodents. The research was published in the February 2012 edition of Gastroenterology.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The industry is redoubling its efforts to discover specific inhibitors of autophagy – the route by which cells degrade and recycle proteins – as evidence mounts from preclinical research and academic trials of the therapeutic potential of blocking that process.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – In the near future, Asian markets of the Pacific Rim region, including China, will contribute 40 percent of overall global pharmaceutical industry growth, which is expected to reach $156 billion annually by 2014, despite growing price interventions, according to Technology Visions Group LLC partner Robert Kilpatrick, who led a leadership session on Pacific Rim dealmaking at the BioPartnering North America conference.

DUBLIN, Ireland – Shrugging off uncertainties stemming from a string of recent – and looming – patent expiries, Eli Lilly and Co. is investing €330 million (US$443 million) in a new biopharmaceutical production facility at its Dunderrow campus, which is located near Kinsale, in County Cork, Ireland.

LONDON – While looking for a target that could be blocked to prevent the malaria parasite from multiplying in the blood of its human host, researchers serendipitously identified a molecule that stops the parasites from reproducing in the mosquito.

LONDON – As the capital drought grinds on, charitable funding is throwing a lifeline to Europe's early stage biotechs, as the latest analysis of grants awarded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) illustrated.

Shares in struggling German drug developer Paion AG soared by more than 30 percent Tuesday on news that its partner, Lundbeck A/S, was handing it a financial lifeline by agreeing to pay €20.1 million (US$27 million) to acquire all outstanding rights to its Phase III stroke drug desmoteplase.