With a declaration by the SEC that the registration statement filed by Scivac Therapeutics Inc. on its proposed merger with VBI Vaccines Inc. was effective, the companies are moving to complete the deal, expected early next month after VBI stockholders meet on May 5 to vote on the transaction.

One of the most formidable challenges facing start-ups – indeed, facing the drug development community as a whole – is how to translate a promising scientific approach into a therapy that's not only safe and effective but easy to use. Over the past 10 days, Antegrin Therapeutics LLC showed that it may have checked that important box.

Despite a reduction in force two weeks ago at Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. that slashed 90 positions in the U.S. and Europe, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company moved brigatinib into its first phase III trial.

Pfizer Inc. and Allergan plc called it quits on their $160 billion deal two days after the U.S. Treasury Department said it was taking actions, effective this week, to curb U.S. corporate tax inversions.

Shares of Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ICPT) gained $17.76, or 13.3 percent, to close at $151.31 Tuesday after briefing documents posted by the FDA ahead of Thursday's meeting of the Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee (adcom) suggested a favorable review of the new drug application for obeticholic acid (OCA).

Despite a clinical hold that's been in place since December 2015, Zafgen Inc. continued to report promising findings with the full dataset from the bestPWS ZAF-311 study of beloranib, taking another step to put the asset back on track.

Gilead Sciences Inc. made a long-awaited M&A move with a deal to acquire Nimbus Apollo Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Nimbus Therapeutics, for $400 million up front and $800 million in development-related milestone payments.

In a six-sentence statement, Janssen Research & Development LLC, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), said it is halting the phase III development program for fulranumab in osteoarthritis (OA) pain.

Immunexcite Inc. completed an $8.6 million series A-1 financing, topping off a series of smaller rounds that sustained the immuno-oncology (I-O) company and its technology, dubbed Mabxcite, for more than five years. All told, the Lexington, Mass.-based company has raised more than $15 million since it was incorporated in 2007, mostly beginning with a $2.4 million series A at the end of 2011.