Companies announcing executives moves this week include Celgene with a new CFO, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Silence Therapeutics, Sosei, BioNTech, Nordic Nanovector, Axcella Health, and NDA Group. The British Generic Manufacturers Association also announced a new chair.

Biopharma companies closed out 2016 with $9.6 billion in financing, the strongest quarter of the year. M&A deals reached $12.2 billion in value, led by Lonza's takeover of Capsugel; most of the fourth quarter's largest partnerships were built around innovative platforms in antibodies, peptides and gene therapy.

While reimbursement pricing issues and policies dominated the Japanese pharma market in 2016, there was also notable commercial activity during the year, although this was more about refocusing and reducing rather than major mergers and acquisitions.

If one theme dominated the Japanese pharma market in 2016 it was reimbursement pricing, with the regular price cuts in April being followed by political pressure over high-priced oncology drugs, and then major new reforms by the end of the year.