Plus deals involving Biorchestra, Takeda/F-star, TaiGen/Joincare, Dr Reddy’s/Eris, Kaken/bitBiome, CJ Bioscience/4D Pharma, Ono/Macomics, Daiichi Sankyo/Zymeworks, Celltrion/Genuv and more.

Global CEOs of J&J, Pfizer, AbbVie and Takeda were among the top pharma executives attending the China Development Forum in its first in-person meeting in three years, and highlighted a number of pharma-related policy changes they would like to see in China. Meanwhile, a Japanese employee of Astellas has been detained in the country for alleged espionage.

Industry trade groups applaud CMS’s proposal to increase transparency for prior authorization approvals but are asking for expedited timeframes to provide care.

Start-up hopes to bring its first candidate, an NY-ESO-1-targeting off-the-shelf product, into the clinic in Q2. Astex and Cardiff University team up on novel therapies for neurodegenerative disease.