Zymeworks Inc. nailed down its sixth strategic partnership, luring Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen Biotech Inc. to a potential $1.45 billion global license to research, develop and commercialize up to six bispecific antibodies directed to Janssen therapeutic targets using Zymeworks' Azymetric and EFECT (Effector Function Enhancement and Control Technology) platforms. Read More

President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that he is nominating Alex Azar to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), saying that "he will be a star for better health care and lower drug prices." Read More

Trovagene Inc., of San Diego, said the first site was activated for its phase Ib/II trial testing PCM-075 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Read More

LONDON – Bill Gates is turning his philanthropic attentions to Alzheimer's disease, with a $50 million investment in the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF), a fund set up by the U.K. government two years ago to identify novel research projects in universities and biotechs and fund them to clinical proof of concept. Read More

Nektar Therapeutics Inc.'s vice president of clinical development, Mary Tagliaferri, told BioWorld that the compelling objective response rate and impressive disease control rate (DCR) with NKTR-214 when paired with Opdivo (nivolumab) from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) in cancer – along with a clean safety profile and an "antibody-like dosing regimen" once every three weeks – likely put the program in line for accelerated approval. Read More

LONDON – The degree of interdependence in the production, quality control and supply of drugs between the U.K. and the rest of Europe has been laid bare in a survey of pharmaceutical supply chains. Read More

WASHINGTON – "In the 21st century, there is not a single cure for a single neurodegenerative disease. Not one. . . . There are no therapeutics. There is no strategy. There is bupkes in the 21st century." Read More

HONG KONG – Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC has set up a partnering office at the newly opened Seoul Bio Hub to help emerging biotech startups. Read More

SHANGHAI – Genhui Chen, CEO and co-founder of Beijing Wenfeng Tianji Pharma Ltd., is at the end of a long road. He is an inventor-entrepreneur waiting patiently for the CFDA to give him the good news he is hoping for: that benvitimod, the first-in-class small-molecule drug he has been developing since the late 1990s, will be approved for mild to moderate psoriasis in China. Read More

Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New York, priced its public offering of about 21.7 million shares of common stock together with accompanying warrants to purchase an aggregate of about 21.7 million shares at a combined price of $2.58 per share and warrant. Read More

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, said the European Commission has granted marketing authorization for Cyltezo, a biosimilar to Humira (adalimumab, Abbvie Inc.) for the treatment of multiple chronic inflammatory diseases in adults and children. Read More