Sanofi SA's decision to hand back rights added another chapter to the saga of Mannkind Corp. with inhaled insulin Afrezza, but the hard-hit biotech firm's chief financial officer, Matthew Pfeffer, said the quit is "not the end of the line for Afrezza or Mannkind, by any means." Read More

Petra Pharma Corp. became the first life science start-up for the 1-year-old New York arm of Accelerator Corp., initially established more than a dozen years ago in Seattle. Read More

LONDON – Acacia Pharma Group plc reported positive results in a 1,200-patient phase III study of APD421, showing the anti-emetic reduced the relative risk of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) by 22 percent when administered in combination with standard-of-care anti-emetics. Read More

Taking advantage of the spotlight of public ire over escalating drug prices, generic drugmakers have joined forces with pharmacists and others to illuminate, and end, what they consider a shady practice to protect brand therapies from follow-on competition. Read More

Millendo Therapeutics Inc., financed with a new $62 million series B investment led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), has exclusively licensed rights to develop and commercialize MLE4901, a phase II neurokinin 3 receptor antagonist licensed from Astrazeneca plc for the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome. Read More

DUBLIN – Gene therapy pioneer Ron Crystal, of Weill Cornell Medical College, is deepening his involvement in Annapurna Therapeutics SAS (formerly AAVLife SAS), the French gene therapy firm he co-founded, by licensing to the company three development programs that are already under way at Weill Cornell's Department of Genetic Medicine. Read More

HONG KONG – Chinese vaccine developer Yisheng Biopharma Co. Ltd. is looking at Southeast Asian markets as the first big opportunity for the company's rabies vaccine, but any marketing will not happen for at least two years. Read More

Corvus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Burlingame, Calif., filed an S-1 with the SEC seeking to raise up to $115 million in an IPO, including a 30-day option for underwriters to purchase an undisclosed number of additional shares to fill overallotments. Read More

Scancell Holdings plc, of Nottingham, U.K., reported the online publication of a full paper in Cancer Research describing the rationale behind its Moditope platform and the experimental results that support it. Read More

Sound Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Seattle, said it started enrollment in a phase Ib trial to test SPI-1005 in the treatment of Meniere's disease, or idiopathic endolymphatic hydrops, an inner ear disease that involves episodic vertigo, sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus. Read More