Still working to refile its NASH fibrosis NDA 22 months after an FDA complete response letter, Intercept gets $405m up front for its ex-US business, including commercial rights to Ocaliva in PBC.

The latest policies from Beijing show that the Chinese government is readying its own new vaccines and drugs for COVID-19 in a bid to gradually ease some of the strictest pandemic restrictions globally, but progress is mixed and domestic reported infections are surging to their highest level since March 2020.

David Loew has assembled a strong business development team which secured seven licensing pacts in 2021 and the Ipsen CEO tells Scrip that this year should see more of the same.

CanSino and Zhifei have received the regulatory green light for their respective COVID-19 booster shots in China and an estimated $1.3bn vaccine market is now up for grabs. Domestic contenders are set to elbow each other in the sector with a range of viral vector, recombinant protein and mRNA-based jabs.