Blueprint Medicines Corp. inked a potential $1 billion deal with Roche AG units F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. and Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. covering the discovery, development and commercialization of up to five small-molecule drugs targeting kinases deemed important in cancer immunotherapy – both as monotherapy and, potentially, in combination with drugs in Roche’s portfolio. Read More

Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc. CEO Scott Jackson told BioWorld Today his firm has taken “the first step – it’s a huge step, but it’s the first step – toward becoming a new foundation of care” in high-risk (secondary) acute myeloid leukemia with Vyxeos, a liposomal form of cytarabine and daunorubicin. Read More

Narrow-spectrum antibiotics are one possible weapon in the fight against drug resistance. But like so many scientifically promising ideas, there are hazards to the idea in the messier situations that predominate in the clinic. Read More

HONG KONG – As it works to clear out a long-standing backlog while strengthening the country’s regulatory environment, the CFDA processed twice as many applications last year. Read More

TOKYO – Closer collaboration, especially information sharing, between different authorities, universities, clinical institutes as well as companies is called for to speed up biopharmaceutical development in Japan. Read More

NEW DELHI – With multiple biosimilars introduced and several in the pipeline, India’s biosimilars segment is expected to touch $1.4 billion in 2016, growing at a rate of 30 per year, according to the latest report by an industry association. Read More

With the U.S. NIH looking to significantly quicken the pace of precision medicine’s march, just north of the border in British Columbia (BC), the Canadian life sciences industry is already working to move the field ahead, in part by investing in its own efforts to realize the concept’s promise. Read More

Cardiome Pharma Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said it recorded a net loss of $24.5 million (loss per share of $1.34) for the year ended Dec. 31, 2015, compared to a net loss of $18.2 million (loss per share of $1.12) in 2014.  Read More

Invivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp., of Cambridge, Mass., said it intends to offer shares of its common stock and warrants to purchase shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering.  Read More

Knight Therapeutics Inc., of Montreal, has purchased global rights to Impavido (miltefosine) as a result of the termination of its agreement with Paladin Labs (Barbados) Inc., an affiliate of Endo International plc, of Dublin, related to the distribution and sale of Impavido in all countries other than the U.S. The company said that it is committed to ensuring the continued supply of the medicine, which is a treatment for leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that is found in parts of the tropics, subtropics, and southern Europe. Read More

Prometic Life Sciences Inc., of Laval, Quebec, said it plans to initiate a double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II trial in patients with scleroderma, based on the scientific rationale that PBI-4050 was shown to reduce fibrosis in several key organs in preclinical models, irrespective of the cause of injury or whether acute or chronic in nature. In mice genetically programmed to develop scleroderma, PBI-4050 prevented over-production of collagen and the formation of fibrotic scarring, according to the company. The trial will examine whether PBI-4050 can prevent or reverse fibrosis in the skin and key target organs, such as the lungs. Read More