Tessa Therapeutics Pte Ltd., of Singapore, appointed Desmond Lim chief financial officer. Lim has more than 25 years of finance experience and has held multiple senior executive roles.  Read More

Celltrion Inc., of Incheon, South Korea, said the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use issued a positive opinion recommending that Herzuma (trastuzumab biosimilar) be granted marketing authorization in the European Union for the treatment of patients with early breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer or metastatic gastric cancer whose tumors have either HER2 overexpression or HER2 gene amplification. A BLA is under review for Herzuma in the U.S. Read More

PERTH, Australia – Investment in research and development fell sharply in the last decade in Australia, and the government can play an important role to improve framework conditions that support innovation, according to the Australian Innovation System Report 2017. Read More

HONG KONG – Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in Jupiter, Fla., have developed a new means of identifying promising new drug candidates from microbial natural products, using information stored in the genomes of the bacteria that produce them. Read More

PERTH, Australia – Belgium's Tigenix NV licensed intellectual property from Australian stem cell company Mesoblast Ltd. the same day it announced approval of the EU's first allogeneic stem cell therapy. The deal supported Tigenix's global commercialization of the adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell product, Cx601, for the local treatment of fistulae for Crohn's disease. (See BioWorld, Dec. 18, 2017.) Read More

DUBLIN and PERTH, Australia – Sensorion SA is teaming up with Cochlear Ltd. to explore the potential for combining drug therapy with cochlear implant surgery to improve patient outcomes. The two companies will spend next year evaluating Sensorion's clinical-stage drug candidate, SENS-401, with Cochlear's implantable devices in a number of preclinical models. If that work is successful, clinical trials could follow in 2019. Read More

NEW DELHI – While the recent FDA approval for a biosimilar version of Roche Holding AG's cancer drug, Herceptin (trastuzumab), developed by Mylan NV and Indian company Biocon Ltd., was notable as the first biosimilar approved in the U.S. for the treatment of breast cancer or stomach cancer, the approval also gives a huge fillip to India's nascent and emerging biosimilars industry. Read More