Oncology partnership with Swiss major follows late 2020 pact with Merck KGaA. Pfizer divests Phase Ib breast cancer candidate to Celcuity.

Russian sovereign wealth fund and Sputnik V vaccine producer RDIF has teamed up with the country’s biggest bank to fund ‘home-grown’ tech and science-intensive start-ups.

Kyorin, Eisai build on earlier OAB deal to team on vibegron. Plus deals involving Piramal/Hemmo, ImmuneOncia/3D Medicines, Kyowa Kirin/Cerecor, Simcere/Kazia, Nippon Shinyaku/Menarini, Tarsus/LianBio

In an unprecedented move, eight of India’s top pharma companies, including Sun Pharma, Cipla, Torrent and Lupin, have set up a common vehicle for digitization initiatives. Having acquired local market research firm AIOCD AWACS and B2B platform Pharmarack, could the mandate extend to other services?

Q2 promises to be ‘transformational’ for AbiVax, propelled by key readouts for investigational anti-inflammatory, ABX464, and cancer agent, ABX196, but more funds will be needed by year end.

Cidara partners its antiviral conjugate platform for seasonal and pandemic influenza with Janssen, which also gets option rights to an AVC candidate for respiratory syncytial virus.

South Korean conglomerate SK Group continues its cross-border acquisitions of contract manufacturers, this time of French biologics specialist Yposkesi, marking a new push into the gene and cell therapy sector as it looks to become a global leader in the production of both innovative chemical drugs and biologics.

Tempest goes public via a reverse merger with Millendo. Takeda inks its ninth deal of 2021, a discovery pact with BridGene around its chemoproteomics technology.

Deal snapshot: Rodeo’s preclinical work in modulating the 15-PDGH enzyme may yield novel regenerative therapies for inflammation, Amgen says, including GI and post-bone marrow transplant indications.