Transactions involving Biocon/Zentiva, CrystalGenomics/PanGen, Umoja/IASO, Marinus/Tenacia, Ono/Captor and Daewoong/HitGen plus deals in brief.

AC Immune has seen two big disappointments in its Alzheimer’s pipeline this year, but its partner Johnson & Johnson has put its faith in a novel vaccine-like approach to targeting the disease.

Zydus, along with Bristol Myers Squibb and generics companies like Mylan, Cipla and Dr. Reddy’s, has been named in an antitrust suit involving BMS’ blockbuster drug Revlimid. For now, it expects revenues from the generic to stretch beyond Q4 FY’23. Meanwhile, a recent acquisition of Watson, which made APIs for the Teva group, should shore up declining API revenues

AstraZeneca and Moderna also shone as the pharma, biotech and allied industries came together in London on 30 November to celebrate a year of exceptional achievement at the 18th Annual Scrip Awards, hosted by the actor, comedian and presenter Stephen Mangan.

Deal Snapshot: German firm gets license rights to Ryvu’s STING agonist portfolio in addition to collaborating on immunomodulators. Ryvu adds need cash via upfront and equity payments from BioNTech.

The Irish firm revealed it was in early conversations with Amgen, J&J and Sanofi regarding a possible takeover, with some experts touting the potential for a deal far surpassing the $20bn mark.

In what appears to be a step towards a gradual shift away from its strict "COVID Zero" policies, China is poised to approve its first mRNA vaccine - in this case developed domestically - and will accelerate the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations in general to seniors over 80.

The move marks the second time since last year that Roche has withdrawn a urothelial carcinoma indication after its confirmatory trial failed to show an overall survival benefit.

Much of the biopharma and other health-related industries in China were already feeling the chill from ongoing macro-economic and other headwinds this year, which now look set to be complicated further by the added strain of social unrest over strict COVID containment policies. The combination of factors is already prompting some to take steps towards restructuring and divestments to survive.

The positive Phase II/III results for acoziborole have led researchers to claim that the goal of eliminating sleeping sickness by 2030 is now very much a reality.

Lilly’s donanemab showed faster, deeper amyloid clearance versus Biogen/Eisai’s Aduhelm and Roche’s failed Phase III gantenerumab studies showed the importance of deep, rapid removal.

Without disclosing data, Nimbus announced positive Phase IIb results for NDI-034858 in psoriasis. The company plans to initiate a Phase III trial next year.