A collaboration between Novo and Fauna will look at animal hibernation and genetic sequencing for hints toward novel therapies for obesity. Pfizer will use Insilico’s machine learning technology in target validation.

Among the Korean firms presenting at J.P. Morgan, Hanmi laid out its strategy for obesity and other core pipeline assets, Celltrion focused on its expanding biosimilar pipeline and China plans and LG Chem unveiled new R&D progress.

Additional highlights from the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, including Takeda’s partnering outlook, Sage’s guidance on Zulresso sales, Frequency’s next steps for its hearing loss drug and Revance’s preparations to take on the aesthetics market. 

Corporate consolidation and specialization were major threads running through the 2010s in Japan. Reimbursement pricing issues continued to dominate the policy sphere while new forms of therapy benefited from positive regulatory reforms.

BeiGene licenses antibody therapeutics for Castleman’s disease and high-risk neuroblastoma.

Daily round-up from the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco: AbbVie's Skyrizi takes psoriasis lead, Amarin goes it alone, Viatris debuts, BeiGene on US drug pricing and Roche think neuroscience is the new oncology.

Bayer’s drive to lead a new market opportunity in Europe for histology-independent cancer agents like Vitrakvi has been set back by interim decisions from the UK’s NICE and Germany’s IQWiG, but there is a now a clear pathway to follow.

Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and Pfizer are helping to fund a public-private partnership aimed at improving the primary care health infrastructure in Africa; the collaboration will also exploit the companies’ experience providing therapies and using digital and web-enabled technologies.

Acquired from Novartis last year, Isturisa is forecast to have peak sales of over $100m. Now all eyes will be on a PDUFA date in March.

Wockhardt has received approvals in India for two novel broad spectrum antibiotics with "advantageous" safety features over older MRSA drugs and the firm hopes to take them to other emerging markets as well, with China on the radar.

A Phase III clinical trial comparing AbbVie's Skyrizi with Novartis's IL-17 agonist Cosentyx showed the former's superiority in adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis.