Editas CEO says recent IND filing to treat LCA10 eye disease puts EDIT-101 on track to be first CRISPR medicine administered directly to patients. Bosley also voices relief at recent US IP court ruling.

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum gains a boost to its US commercialization infrastructure, a product to make immunology a key part of its specialty care business, and financial flexibility to seek further product acquisitions, through an RSV products deal with AstraZeneca.

Litigation woes at Monsanto are casting a shadow over Bayer but despite the news of some discontinued projects, the German major sees pharma as an integral component and will keep investing in its pipeline.

Intensifying competition in the global biosimilars space and a temporary drop in its factory utilization rate took a toll on Celltrion's earnings in the third quarter, but analysts still expect a rosy outlook next year amid the expected US launches of biosimilar rituximab and trastuzumab, and the first subcutaneous version of Remsima on the horizon in Europe.

Takeda is hoping to start 2019 with a bang, saying its huge acquisition of Shire might become a done deal as early as January 8. Speculation continues meanwhile on possible post-merger divestments to help pay down associated debt. 

Buoyed by the market share held by biosimilars of the short-acting neutropenia drug Neupogen, Coherus hopes its Udenyca price, contracts and services will give its biosimilar a significant share of the market for the longer-acting Neulasta.

Despite suffering a setback at the hands of NICE, AstraZeneca's ambitious plans for Lynparza have been boosted by the FDA agreeing to speed up a review of the recent SOLO-1 data which took ESMO by storm last month.

It took NICE nearly three years to offer routine access to Lenvima for thyroid cancer but it has taken just three months from European approval to recommend the drug for advanced or unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

A London conference was told that Chinese trends in modernizing healthcare and life sciences innovation will soon produce high-quality 'made in China' medicines for global export.

Sweden's life science industry is a key component of the Scandinavian country's economy. New life science companies emerge there every year. Growing shipments to China and Japan by Swedish companies reflect the duo’s increasing importance as export markets, especially in relation to the US and the European Union. And while the UK has hitherto been regarded as a stepping stone to foreign markets, worries over what Brexit will mean for future business and opportunities is prompting players to increasingly look to the US to set up operations.

China’s artificial intelligence-powered healthcare ambition takes a new form, a 24-hour health clinic complete with a medicine dispenser that may eventually be coming to a city corner near you. Pharma companies are also continuing to build digital health services in the country as part of the health technology push.

Although GS-9674’s efficacy data don’t appear as promising as that for Intercept’s competing FXR agonist OCA, Gilead seems to be building an argument that its drug has a better combination of efficacy and safety.