While many of his peers elbowed each other to leap into oncology, James Xue decided to focus on rare diseases such as Hunter’s Syndrome. Now, 10 years after founding CANbridge, the CEO sat down for an audio interview with Scrip to offer his views on a flurry of key issues impacting orphan drug development in potentially the world's largest pharma market.

Also, deals involving AbCellera/Angios, AstraZeneca/Alchemab, Kowa/Esteve, OSE/Veloxis, Tris/Park, Core One/Akome and Vertex/Obsidian.

Boehringer Ingelheim intends to combine Lupin’s MEK inhibitor with its own KRAS inhibitors to target the oncogenic KRAS-RAF-MEK-ERK pathway, mutations in which drive many difficult-to-treat cancers.

Bayer will collaborate with start-up Hope Medicine to develop antibody therapies targeting the PRL receptor. WARF and Sanford Burnham Prebys partner on translational research.