Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Ahmedabad, India, and Altus Formulation Inc., of Montreal, signed a new co-development and licensing agreement covering Altus' Flexitab formulation platform. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will jointly select key development targets benefiting from Flexitab, a validated tablet technology providing alcohol-resistant extended-release tablets that may be broken, with no change in performance, to generate bioequivalent lower-strength segments, and will co-develop and obtain marketing approval for those products in various territories. Products co-developed and commercialized under the agreement may be sublicensed to third parties around the globe. Read More

HONG KONG – Established in February, South Korean biotech startup Bionetix Inc. has already secured a partnership with Southern Research to develop cancer drugs, and plans to move into the clinic with a lead program targeting glaucoma in 2019. Read More

HONG KONG – Foresee Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. and TRPharm Ilac Sanayi Tic. A/S have entered an exclusive licensing and distribution agreement for the commercialization of Foresee's most advanced asset, FP-001, a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone-agonist therapy for prostate cancer, in Turkey and certain Middle East countries. Read More

A new Japanese study has shown that most mutations in induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells arising during their generation occur in non-transcriptional areas of the genome. The authors argue this means such mutations are unlikely to cause malignancy. Read More

The discovery of distinct microbial communities along the female reproductive tract from the vagina to fallopian tube, using genetic amplification (amplicon) technology, challenge the traditional view of human fetal development taking place in a sterile environment, a new Chinese study has found. Read More

HONG KONG – Hutchison China Meditech Ltd. (Chi-Med) and Astrazeneca plc released positive preliminary safety and anti-tumor activity data of co-developed potential first-in-class inhibitor savolitinib in combination with other immunotherapy agents from two phase Ib/II experiments. Read More