A second big pharma firm has backed down on price increases. Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, reportedly announced it would not raise prices in the U.S. in 2018. That move follows last week's announcement by New York-based Pfizer Inc. that, based on a phone conversation between CEO Ian Read and President Donald Trump, prices on its drugs would revert to their pre-July 1 levels until either the president's blueprint on drug pricing goes into effect or the end of the year, whichever comes first. Read More
Dcprime BV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, has obtained the global research and commercialization rights to certain process development patents owned by Glycotope GmbH, of Berlin, Germany, through a license agreement. Read More
Neuraly Inc., of Germantown, Md., raised $36 million in series A financing from South Korean holding company D&D Pharmatech, with participation by major Korean venture funds, including: Smilegate Investment, Intervest, LB Investment, Magna Investment, Geon Investment and Dongkoo Bio&Pharma. Read More
TAIPEI, Taiwan – The topic of where technology will take health care in the near future was approached from numerous perspectives on the first day of BioTaiwan. While long-term questions such as what tasks will remain for humans were harder to answer, there was more certainty about the changes that are on the horizon. Read More
DUBLIN – The EMA's clinical data portal, the flagship project underpinning its commitment to data transparency, attracted just 3,600 users during its first 12 months of operation, according to a report the agency published this week. Read More
PERTH, Australia – Mesoblast Ltd. has signed a deal with China's Tasly Pharmaceutical Group that opens up the massive greater China market to the Aussie stem cell company to develop, manufacture and commercialize two of its late-stage allogeneic mesenchymal precursor cell (MPC) candidates for cardiovascular indications. Read More
In an SEC filing regarding its IPO, Rubius Therapeutics Inc. noted that the preclinical red cell therapeutics (RTC) work underway "will require substantial resources to demonstrate technical feasibility and establish clinical and regulatory validation," and those resources arrived as the company priced about 10 million shares at $23 each, for gross proceeds of $241.1 million. Read More
"We're enjoying the one-two punch," Mark Goldsmith, president and CEO of Revolution Medicines Inc., told BioWorld after the Redwood City, Calif.-based firm inked an oncology partnership with Sanofi SA covering its SHP2 program. In return for an exclusive license for global commercialization of any approved products targeting SHP2, the Paris-based pharma agreed to provide Revolution with $50 million up front and up to $500 million in development and regulatory milestone payments and to fund R&D for the joint SHP2 program, which remains, for now, under Revolution's direction. Read More
