Armed with some big pharma muscle in the form of a potential $1 billion-plus deal with AstraZeneca plc, Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. is hot on Pfizer Inc.'s heels in the race for an oral, disease-modifying rheumatoid arthritis drug. (BioWorld Today)

Vernalis plc is raising £30 million (US$47 million) in a stock sale to buy back its royalty stream for migraine drug frovatriptan and shore up its bank balance ahead of much-awaited data from its Phase IIb trial of V3381 in neuropathic pain. (BioWorld Today)

With the FDA set to make a decision on Shire plc's enzyme replacement therapy velaglucerase by the end of this month and a review date for Protalix Biotherapeutics Inc.'s Uplyso (taliglucerase alfa) expected later this year, Genzyme Corp.'s top-selling drug for Gaucher disease is certain to take a sales hit. (Bioworld Today)

Shares of Cell Therapeutics Inc. tumbled 39.6 percent after FDA briefing documents, emerging ahead of Wednesday's advisory panel, suggested that the company's abbreviated pivotal study of pixantrone might not be enough to warrant the drug's accelerated approval in relapsed/ refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. (BioWorld Today)

With promising early data and a clear Phase III pathway for its GALNS drug in a rare lysosomal storage disorder, BioMarin Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it is no longer in critical need of late-stage assets to fill out its pipeline. (BioWorld Today)