As the U.K. pursues its divorce from the EU, smaller U.S. drug and device companies could be caught disproportionately in the collateral damage. Read More
Days after going public, Viela Bio Inc. nailed down a deal with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. to develop and commercialize Viela's humanized anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody, inebilizumab, in nine Asia regions for the rare disease called neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), as well as other potential future indications. Read More
Bluebird Bio Inc. and Novo Nordisk A/S plan to develop in vivo genome editing treatments for genetic diseases, including hemophilia, over the next three years. Read More
Cygnal Therapeutics Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup devoted to developing new cancer and immunotherapy drugs, has raised $65 million from Flagship Pioneering to advance research in a field it is calling "exoneural biology" in an effort to deliver relief via the peripheral nervous system. The company is led by Pearl Huang, a veteran of Roche Holding AG and Glaxosmithkline plc. Calling exoneural biology "a new way to look at something that has always been there," she said Cygnal's platform has uncovered "new drivers of disease that are both profound and actionable." Read More
HONG KONG – South Korean pharmaceutical company Chong Kun Dang Holdings recently invested KRW5 billion (US$4.1 million) in Biorchestra Co. Ltd., a Korean startup based in Daejeon that aims to develop Alzheimer's dementia treatment based on microRNA. Read More
Sorrento Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, said it closed its registered direct offering of about 10.9 million shares of common stock and warrants to purchase up to 10.9 million shares, at a combined purchase price of $2.30 per share and related warrant. Read More
Galderma Pharma SA, of Lausanne, Switzerland, received a manufacturing license from the Swedish Medical Products Agency for a facility in Uppsala, Sweden. The facility will manufacture Galderma's QM-1114, a botulinum toxin derived from a strain of Clostridium botulinum. Read More
President Donald Trump signed two executive orders Wednesday to improve transparency and fairness in U.S. government agencies and to ensure that they are held accountable. Read More
LONDON – A paper that raised concerns for the future health of Lulu and Nana, the world's first gene edited babies, has been fully retracted at the request of the authors, after they failed to identify a problem in data from the U.K. Biobank on which their analysis was based. Read More