The Swedish firm’s Parkinson's disease drug has failed to hit its primary endpoint in a Phase IIb study but Irlab believes that positive results on secondary goals merit further development of mesdopetam.

The Swedish biotech is well positioned with soon-to-be late-stage clinical assets, commercial validation and a strong pipeline, new CEO Richard Godfrey tells Scrip.

After CEO David Loew declared again that Ipsen would be very active in the dealmaking space, Ipsen is paying $45m upfront to access two immuno-oncology candidates from Marengo and bagged an ERK inhibitor from AGV Discovery.

Ipsen CEO David Loew recently told Scrip that a return to more rational valuations for biotechs should led to more deals. The Epizyme acquisition could be the first of many by the French group this year.