The vaccine product pipeline has never been fuller, with more than triple the number of candidates in development today than in 2005 and global sales on track to reach $40 billion in five years, according to the July/August Impact Report from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD).

In a move characterized by President and CEO Stephen From as “potentially transformative,” Eyegate Pharmaceuticals Inc. enticed Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. to an exclusive global licensing agreement for commercial and manufacturing rights to lead candidate, EGP-437, a combination of the reformulated corticosteroid, dexamethasone phosphate, delivered into the ocular tissues using the company’s Eyegate II delivery system.

Nusirt Biopharma Inc. is a small biotech that has largely avoided the limelight, but ambitious goals to attack two major indications – type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) – could quickly raise its profile.

Globavir Biosciences Inc. found a partner for its lead oncology program in Sorrento Therapeutics Inc., which in turn inked another in a string of deals with the oncology syndicate Nantworks LLC that is being assembled by founder Patrick Soon-Shiong.

Jun Bao, senior vice president and chief business officer of Shenogen Pharma Group, begins nearly every presentation about the company with a slide that features strikingly different images.

Jun Bao, senior vice president and chief business officer of Shenogen Pharma Group, begins nearly every presentation about the company with a slide that features strikingly different images. At the top is a simple photo of the ubiquitous Epimedium wushanense, commonly known as horny goat weed, a hardy perennial that grows mainly in China and has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as an aphrodisiac and a treatment for erectile dysfunction. Shenogen's lead molecule, icaritin, is derived from the plant.

Drugmakers are beginning to lower the cost and improve the efficiency of their R&D operations, and not just by slashing head count and shuttering facilities, according to a report from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD).

In a deal that both partners cited as "transformative" for their companies and for the field of immunotherapeutics, Celgene Corp. enlisted Juno Therapeutics Inc. as a partner in a broad, global collaboration to leverage T-cell therapies and develop treatments targeting cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Catabasis Pharmaceuticals Inc. made a respectable debut on Nasdaq after pricing its IPO, generating $60 million from the sale of 5 million common shares at $12 apiece.