SHANGHAI – Upstart domestic biotech Ascletis Inc., with offices in the U.S. and China, is a step closer to realizing its dream of having the first effective hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment on the market in China. But it is facing a race against time, going up against much heavier hitters such as Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif. Read More

SHANGHAI – Brivanib, an oral kinase inhibitor for liver cancer, is getting another crack at getting on the market, and this time, if successful, it will be in China where almost half the world’s liver cancer patients reside. Read More

SINGAPORE – Despite a number of advantages as a site for early stage clinical trials, Asia not only lags other regions in the world but the proportion of studies it hosts is actually dropping. Read More

HONG KONG – Marking an important shift in the way the biotech industry operates in Asia, companies are increasingly willing and eager to share information with their peers, governments and industry associations to develop new and more effective immunotherapies. Read More

SHANGHAI – In the almost two years since Chinese police said they were investigating Glaxosmithkline plc for corruption, the industry here has seen compliance go from a mid-level priority, second to meeting ambitious sales targets, to a board-level issue directly concerning senior management teams and those legally responsible for the business. Read More

HONG KONG – Inhibition of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) blocked the characteristic neuronal excitation seen in epileptic seizures in vitro and prevented such events in a mouse model of epilepsy in a study by Japanese pharmacologists, who also identified a promising new treatment for patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. Read More

Immunogen Inc. shares (NASDAQ:IMGN) climbed 16.8 percent to close at $8.69 Monday as Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. pledged $20 million up front plus potential milestones to license exclusive rights to use the company’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology to develop and commercialize anticancer therapeutics for up to two undisclosed targets with an option on a third. Read More

Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Ahmedabad, India, has acquired the hospital drugs business in Spain and Portugal from Barcelona, Spain-based Combino Pharm through its subsidiary Accord Healthcare. The deal gives Accord certain rights over Combino’s hospital portfolio in a number of European and non-European countries while complementing Accord’s existing business in Spain, Intas said. Read More