The next chapter of Cipla’s innovation journey goes beyond its core respiratory thrust to include new platforms spanning areas such as peptides, where it has seen its first major approval in the US and has multiple programs lined up. Devices and diagnostics are among the other avenues being explored as the Indian company seeks to bring more patients into the “funnel”.

In a vote of confidence, investors predict Shanghai IPOs to rise in 2022, while sluggish share performances in Hong Kong have made a public listing there more “a liquidity rather than an exit event.”

Licensing deals and partnerships carried the day during another hectic J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Pfizer racked up its third deal of the week in a cancer collaboration with Dren Bio.

Private Company Edition: NVCA and Pitchbook data show pharma and biotech companies raised $37.8bn in venture capital in 2021, up 41% from the record $26.8bn total in 2020. Recent mega-rounds include $190m for Maze and $200m for Alumis, and Sound Bioventures raised a €110m fund.

Sanofi India's managing director is moving on after an eventful innings that saw the company re-orient operations, moving out of certain non-strategic areas to focus on core therapies. Pre-pandemic early digital adoption appears to have played out well too for the French group’s listed Indian arm.

With up to $100m from Abingworth and a recent $75m FOPO, CymaBay has runway to await pivotal data in primary biliary cholangitis in 2023 for seladelpar, after the candidate failed in NASH. It sees a significant market opportunity in the second-line setting cornered by Intercept.

Scrip's Kevin Grogan joins Datamonitor's Pamela Spicer and Davinderpreet Mangat to discuss the skin disease landscape and whether atopic dermatitis is now where psoriasis was a decade ago as another wave of innovative products start to reach the market.

The draft national coverage determination, released shortly before Lilly CEO David Ricks spoke at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, said Medicare will cover anti-amyloid antibodies only for patients in clinical trials, severely limiting commercial potential for Biogen’s Aduhelm and near-term competitors.

The Swiss biotech has got the thumbs up in the US for its insomnia drug which will be sold as Quviviq and is expected to be provide serious competition for Merck & Co's rival dual orexin receptor antagonist Belsomra.

More progress for vaccines and oral antivirals in Asia as South Korea issues an approval for Novavax's vaccine, Pfizer files for Japanese approval of Paxlovid, and SK bio progresses late-stage trials of its recombinant vaccine. 

The ex-GSK supply head Ian McCubbin will join the independent UK organization aimed at advancing cell and gene therapies, but notes issues with scale and manufacturing ahead.

From a STING agonist to a SOS1 inhibitor, Lupin listed oncology candidates from the preclinical stage to those in IND-enabling studies during the recently concluded J.P. Morgan conference. Meanwhile, the newly spun-off oncology subsidiary awaits partners.