Johnson & Johnson has solid growth drivers in pharmaceuticals, but still faces an overhang related to talc controversy; Bristol's call will be dominated by the just-announced Celgene acquisition; and AbbVie will face questions about its cancer plans after expensive failure with Rova-T.

Allegations of corporate governance lapses continued to singe Sun, but there is little clarity on which way things are headed, at least for now.

The number of foreign investors participating in Catalan biotech companies has gone from 0 to 50, and over the past five years alone, the figure has increased tenfold, according to the latest Biocat report.

Public Company Edition: The usual mid-January surge in public offerings hasn't happened this year, since the SEC can't process new filings, but Alnylam, Acceleron and others apparently were prepared for a lengthy shutdown. Also, ARM reports cell and gene therapy financing data.

Valneva’s 2019 guidance has been boosted by the US Army’s Ixiaro vaccine order, as other products flourish in the pipeline.

Digital health represents a set of opportunities that can transform all parts of the pharma landscape. Speaking on the sidelines of Biotech Showcase 2019, Stephanie Bova, managing partner at Hatch@Takeda, tells Scrip how the Japanese pharma has established a new group to support the creation and financing of digital health businesses in the US and Europe.

A worst-case Brexit scenario – a disorderly one – has become more likely, making an already white-knuckled life sciences industry step up its preparations.

How much therapies should cost and how they should be reimbursed are questions that are expected to dominate in 2019, according to industry experts and participants surveyed by Scrip on their expectations for the coming year. This is the focus for the final installment of our three-part Scrip Asks series.

Roche’s subcutaneous (SC) Herceptin (trastuzumab) has been declined a trial waiver in India, at least for now, stretching potential launch timelines for the product significantly. The company emphasizes that a harmonized regulatory approach could best serve patient interests for therapies like Herceptin that come with a ‘long history of proven efficacy’.

Novartis and the Big Data Institute have entered a research alliance using artificial intelligence to understand complex diseases and improve drug development.

Recent studies have shown that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) hold great potential as a cell‐based therapy for a number of neurodegenerative diseases. Speaking on the sidelines of Biotech Showcase 2019, Chaim Lebovitz, President and CEO of Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics, tells Scrip how the New York-based biotech is currently enrolling a multi-dose, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III study of its MSC therapy, leveraging the company’s NurOwn platform, in 200 rapid-progressing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients.

It's early days yet and Alzheimer's is a field littered with failures, but the latest results for the vaccine UB-311 support advancing development.