HONG KONG – In a deal with a South Korean biotech, French pharma major Sanofi SA is collecting more diabetes drugs for its pipeline, aiming to mitigate the impact on its diabetes business, which has seen a 6.6 percent decline in the global market. Read More

Days after luring Sanofi SA to a potential multi-billion-dollar diabetes deal, the pipeline of metabolic assets at Hanmi Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. caught the eye of another big pharma. Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a unit of Johnson & Johnson, of New Brunswick, N.J., gained exclusive global rights outside Korea and China to develop and commercialize Hanmi's oxyntomodulin-based therapies, including HM12525A (LAPSGLP/GCG), a GLP-1/glucagon receptor dual agonist. Read More

Even though it is sponsored by three organizations, the joint Molecular Targets meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute, and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (AACR-NCI-EORTC) is smaller than the annual meetings of the big organizations – including that of AACR itself. Read More

HONG KONG – As part of the efforts to reform its drug registration system, China has decided to pilot a marketing authorization holders (MAH) system that allows individuals and research institutes to market drugs. Read More

HONG KONG – To tackle the high prevalence of cholangiocarcinoma in South Korea, two companies have come together in a co-development deal to bring the first treatment to the country. Read More

SHANGHAI – Acea Biosciences Inc., a company that got its start selling instruments used for drug discovery and along the way developed its own pipeline of novel drug compounds, has just closed its first venture round, receiving $30 million from Lilly Asia Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners. Acea is headquartered in San Diego with an instrument plant and additional operations in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Read More

SHANGHAI – Chinese innovation has long been a fraught topic: Does China have it? If so, what is it? When will it be globally relevant? And, if you want to really get people going just ask if China can innovate at all. Some are optimistic that China is on the right path to become a true global innovation participant. McKinsey & Co. decided it was time to tackle that hot topic in its own fashion with a survey of industry leaders who have one foot in China and the other abroad. Read More

Medivation Inc., of San Francisco, said net sales of Xtandi (enzalutamide) capsules, as reported by partner Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, were $313 million in the third quarter, a 73 percent increase over the same period in 2014. Ex-U.S. net sales of Xtandi, as reported by Astellas, were approximately $205 million for the quarter, or a 71 percent increase over the prior year. Read More