Expanded indications will be key for Novartis's Beovu and a successful diabetic macular edema trial has provided a fillip, a week after the wet AMD-approved drug posted a 44% slump in sales.

Private Company Edition: The astonishing pace of venture capital investment in drug development continues with another $1.5bn in financings of $100m or more, including $152m for Pyxis and $126m for Omega. New VC funds also continue to launch, including RiverVest’s fifth fund, totaling $275m.

Celltrion has received an endorsement from the European Medicines Agency that means that its Remsima SC subcutaneous formulation of infliximab can be used directly in rheumatoid arthritis patients, without the need for intravenous loading first.

Fresh cash will help advance the UK firm's one-time investigational gene therapy for geographic atrophy and a listing in the US is in the offing.