Privately held Lycera Corp. attracted its second major partner – and a potential buyer – in an exclusive global collaboration with Celgene Corp. focused on advancing Lycera's preclinical RORgamma agonists for cancer immunotherapy and a clinical-stage candidate, LYC-30937, in development for IBD.

Celtaxsys Inc. corralled a stable of investors, led by Domain Partners, to complete a $40 million series D round that was supplemented by an additional $5 million grant from Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation Therapeutics, the nonprofit drug discovery and development affiliate of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF).

Before the curtains even closed on the 2015 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, attention is turning to the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) 75th Scientific Sessions, which begin Friday in Boston. Abstract titles suggest presentations will address not only the raft of current drug development efforts and large cardiovascular outcome trials (CVOT) that have weighed on biopharmas in the diabetes space but also some of the emerging technologies to treat the disease.

Midatech Pharma plc swung away from its core nanomedicine platform technology but picked up a toehold in North America and the scaffold of a commercial infrastructure by inking an agreement to acquire Dara Biosciences Inc.

Anokion SA is spinning out a new start-up, Kanyos Bio Inc., to serve as the vehicle for a development alliance in autoimmune disease with Astellas Pharma Inc., which could be worth up to $760 million in R&D funding, option exercise payments and milestones.

Neurovive Pharmaceutical AB was dangling from the high wire after reporting a top-line analysis of the phase III CIRCUS study of Ciclomulsion, which indicated the study missed the primary clinical endpoint in patients with ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI).

Investors in Heron Therapeutics Inc. received the good news they were awaiting when the phase III MAGIC study of Sustol (granisetron injection, extended release) hit its primary endpoint as part of a three-drug regimen together with the intravenous (I.V.) neurokinin-1 (NK1) receptor antagonist fosaprepitant and the I.V. corticosteroid dexamethasone to prevent delayed-onset chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) following administration of highly emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC) agents.

The FDA's approval of Viberzi (eluxadoline) and the label extension for Xifaxan (rifaximin), both to treat irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) in adults, offered additional validation for the M&A approach of specialty pharmas Actavis plc and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.

After Friday's market close, while much of the U.S. had already turned its attention to the long Memorial Day weekend, Amgen Inc. quietly axed its stake in brodalumab, the much-heralded IL-17 inhibitor that was part of a co-development and commercialization deal with partner Astrazeneca plc.