The German major believes its drug will remain the biggest-selling SGLT-2 inhibitor boosted by expanded heart and renal disease approvals.

An all-stock transaction will see Europe’s Kiadis and US’s CytoSen bring together complementary approaches to improving stem cell transplants and cancer immunotherapy.

With no more activist investor challenge, shareholders of both companies overwhelmingly approved the deal. Bristol said it will have leading positions in oncology and cardiovascular disease, and gain five potential blockbusters in the Celgene buyout.

At the recent BIO-Europe Spring partnering conference, Tim Dyer, CEO of Addex Therapeutics, spoke to Lucie Ellis, executive editor of In Vivo, about the company’s small-molecule allosteric modulators for central nervous system disorders.

Cipla’s global COO Dr R Ananthanarayanan tells Scrip how the company is rethinking and refining its manufacturing operations in the backdrop of intense competition and evolving customer and regulatory requirements. Digitization and advanced analytics are part of the proposed manufacturing innovation plans.

GlaxoSmithKline India has carved out a specialized team with close to 300 personnel to engage with pharmacists. It is seeking to plug product availability gaps and address Rx switching at the retail level in the competitive and largely out-of-pocket Indian market.

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals is ending development of its lead drug MM-310 because of safety concerns, triggering a fresh round of job cuts at the troubled Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech.

The company's severe asthma drug Fasenra has demonstrated its effectiveness in a Phase II trial for hypereosinophilic syndrome, a group of rare disorders which can cause progressive organ damage.