Chinese venture funding to the US biotech sector has fallen by nearly 60% in the latest sign of cooling in the previously booming bilateral life sciences investment sector.

More Indian companies are headed to China, with Cipla the latest to seal a joint venture there, though the firm has previous links with the country. Respiratory products will lead Cipla’s line-up in China, a market seen as a crucial cog in the firm’s future road map.

Following Pfizer’s decision not to take up an option to acquire the Dutch company, AM-Pharma has returned to the venture capital market to get backing for a single pivotal Phase III trial of reCAP in acute kidney injury.

The Phase III PRIMA study in first-line ovarian cancer was positive for progression-free survival in patients regardless of their biomarker status, GSK reported.

Bayer is battling Natco in another high-profile infringement suit in India, this time pertaining to its anticancer Stivarga (regorafenib). The case has many legs and is to be re-heard by a single judge on the orders of a division bench.

Having signed a major alliance expansion with Gilead, Onno van Stolpe tells Scrip that any takeover talk about Galapagos would be "unacceptable and unwanted."

Shares of Korea's Medytox fell on suspicions that it supplied botulinum toxin to local hospitals before the product's approval in 2006. The concerns add to other manufacturing issues that have been denied by the company, which pointed to a rival as the possible source amid an ongoing legal battle over the strain used in the product.

Biopharma companies are reluctant to rely on real-world evidence trials, but while uncertainty remains about how these novel studies will be accepted, US and other regulators are encouraging drug developers to take a chance – and some have taken on the challenge.

Viren Mehta of Mehta Partners LLC mulls the potential of blockchain, the rapidly evolving IT resource that secures every step in a business action.

Although only interim data from six treated patients, Capricor’s Phase II DMD study shows improvements in upper limb performance, grip strength and respiration. Cardiac performance shows positive trend, but not yet statistical significance.

Having signed a major alliance expansion with Gilead, Onno van Stolpe tells Scrip that any takeover talk about Galapagos would be "unacceptable and unwanted."

Pipeline Watch is a weekly snapshot of selected late-stage clinical trial events announced by pharmaceutical and biotech companies at medical and industry conferences, in financial and company presentations, and in company releases and statements.