Against all the odds, AstraZeneca still has hopes for Imfinzi in first-line NSCLC with data from the failed MYSTIC trial suggesting strong survival in patients with a high tumour mutation burden.

In "very top-line" Phase IIb data, the magnitude of the treatment effect for valbenazine in children with Tourette syndrome was weaker than expected, and its loss from active development means there will be only a handful of candidates under evaluation for the disorder.

Novartis stresses long-term safety database for Cosentyx – with five years' worth of data in three indications – psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.

It is a field littered with failures but Eisai remains hopeful that its pipeline of candidates for Alzheimer's disease, which has just been added to, gives the firm a number of shots at getting a disease-modifying agent to market.

Ra hopes to launch a Phase III program for zilucoplan next year, with a goal of bringing an alternative therapy for MG patients into competition with Alexion’s Soliris.

Conatus’ emricasan fails to meet the primary endpoint for portal hypertension in NASH patients with cirrhosis, but firm stresses promising subgroup data. Genfit hits Phase II primary endpoint in PBC with elafibranor, which is also in Phase III for NASH.

The international biopharma industry is backing the UK life sciences sector, with UCB spearheading the charge with a £1bn commitment to R&D in the nation still in a state of flux regarding its exit from the European Union in 2019.

The latest failure of the combination of AZ's PD-L1 inhibitor and its CLTA4 inhibitor is in advanced head and neck cancer. It follows recent failures of the MYSTIC and ARCTIC trials in lung cancer.

The German group has been talking up its pharmaceuticals division but analysts are not convinced it has addressed the elephant in the room that is the loss of patent protection for its blockbuster anticoagulant Xarelto in 2024.