As biopharma deal values continue to rise above recent years, a growing percentage of the funds are coming through partnerships with companies headquartered in Asia and nearby countries. The $48.5 billion reported so far in 2020, for deals in which at least one party is based in either Asia, Australia or New Zealand, represents 37% of the global deal value. Read More
HONG KONG – Osaka-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. has divested a portfolio of non-core prescription pharmaceuticals products to Greifswald, Germany-based Cheplapharm Arzneimittel GmbH as part of an ongoing program intended to optimize and simplify its portfolio. Read More
Favorable conditions in China encouraged biotech veterans Jerry Wang, Bing Yan and Lihua Zheng to co-found Anheart Therapeutics Co. Ltd. in November 2018 to focus on oncology. On Monday, the Chinese startup in-licensed a mIDH-1 inhibitor and an AXL inhibitor from Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. to expand its pipeline, less than two years after it obtained the global rights of its first asset, AB-106 (taletrectinib), from the Japanese firm to establish its footing. Read More
LONDON – The international commission convened in the aftermath of Chinese scientist He Jiankui’s shock announcement of the birth of gene edited twins has set a possible course to approval of heritable gene editing, but said the technique is far from ready for use. Read More
PERTH, Australia – With the launch of its lead product, Scenesse (afamelanotide), in the U.S. and Europe, Melbourne-based Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is expanding its global footprint and widening its pipeline as it opens a new R&D center in Singapore and builds up its franchise in photo medicine. Read More
HONG KONG – Sanofi SA has finally ended its clinical development of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s efpeglenatide as a type 2 diabetes treatment, and the Korean firm is now considering how to move forward with developing the once-weekly GLP-1 receptor agonist, which employs Hanmi's Lapscovery delivery technology. Read More
HONG KONG – The use of artificial intelligence in drug discovery was back in the spotlight on the last day of the 2020 KoNECT-MOHW-MFDS International Conference, with drug developers pointing out both challenges and possible solutions. Read More
The BioWorld Artificial Intelligence price-weighted index, which includes biopharmaceutical companies, medical devices and health care services companies, has climbed in value and is currently up almost 37% year-to-date. Read More
HONG KONG – The Korean 2020 KoNECT-MOHW-MFDS International Conference, which is taking place online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, faced a challenging start. Technical difficulties hampered some of the early proceeding. However, technology took focus again later in the day in a more positive, with an exploration of artificial intelligence (AI). Read More
HONG KONG – Interim results of a phase I study CT-P59, an anti-COVID-19 monoclonal antibody being developed by Incheon, South Korea-based Celltrion Inc., have confirmed the candidate’s safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics in healthy subjects, giving the company confidence to ramp up production of the experimental antiviral. Read More
The latest global regulatory news, changes and updates affecting biopharma, including: Biotechnology Innovation Organization, FDA, Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Read More
Clinical updates from Asia, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications, including: Ampio, Astrazeneca, Blade, Calliditas, Celltrion, Celularity, Corvus, Cyxone, Daiichi Sankyo, Diffusion, Eli Lilly, Humanigen, Inflarx, Kamada, Octapharma, Pfizer, Pharmabcine, Recce, Regeneron, Sinovac, Seneca, Takeda, Verona. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations in Asia-Pacific, including: Aldeyra, Appili, Arch, Ascentage, Beigene, Beyondspring, Canbridge, Gan & Lee, Gannex, Junshi, Kiadis, Mateon, Reven, SK, Vaxart, Zai. Read More
