Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. took another step in advancing its RNAi portfolio Tuesday, inking a potential $1 billion deal with Tokyo-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. that will give Cambridge, Mass.-based Alnylam a 50-50 share in the Japanese partner's development and commercialization efforts in RNAi therapeutics in the U.S. (BioWorld Today)

Although blood shortages are common in much of the developing world and industrialized nations alike, the few players in the blood substitute market have much work to do to achieve success in that space. And it doesn't help that recent events threatened to send companies like Biopure Corporation, Hemosol BioPharma Inc. and Northfield Laboratories Inc. back to the starting block. (BioWorld Financial Watch)

In a deal that sent shares of ImaRx Therapeutics Inc. soaring and spurred the creation of a spin-off company, Microbix Biosystems agreed to acquire urokinase inventory and related assets from ImaRx for $17 million in cash. (BioWorld Today)

Four years after purchasing Esperion Therapeutics Inc., a company focused on the discovery and development of compounds for cardiovascular and metabolic disease, Pfizer Inc. is selling the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based firm to an entity funded by a group of investors. (BioWorld Today)