Novartis is the latest big pharma to sign up for access to Sangamo's gene therapy technologies, inking a deal that will focus on neurodevelopment disorders and could be worth in the region of $800m.

Deal Snapshot: The $445m Cerevel gains will help as it plans to have at least six programs in the clinic within the next year. CEO Tony Coles will head up a public firm for the first time since Amgen bought Onyx. 

UCB gets $120m up front from Roche for option rights to UCB0107 and retains full rights to the drug in progressive supranuclear palsy.

The company previously cut 2020 revenue expectations by $2.5bn, including $1.7bn for pharma products. Keytruda’s dominance and portfolio diversification also may dominate second quarter call.

Daiichi Sankyo’s relatively young strategic pivot into oncology is paying major dividends, with two huge global deals with AstraZeneca now in the bag within 18 months. Scrip takes a closer look with the help of insights from the Japanese firm’s global oncology R&D head.

New York biotech is partnering with researchers at Columbia, Kansas State and Southern Research to address the pandemic.

Although Elonzris, the therapy at the heart of its recent acquisition of Stemline has just been rejected in Europe, Italy's Menarini is pushing on with its expansion in oncology and is paying $30m upfront to get the rights to Radius Health's Phase III hope elacestrant.

Following their original March 2019 tie-up for an oncology antibody-drug conjugate, Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca have entered into a new global deal worth up to $6bn for a second novel asset from the Japanese firm, with potential in breast, lung and other cancers.

Plus recent deals involving BeiGene, Assembly Biosciences, Piramal, Medivant, Revitope, Junshi, JW Therapeutics, Eureka, Acepodia, Chiesi, Bayer, NewG Lab, AnHeart