| Welcome to FierceLifeSci Weekly Digest, your roundup of the biggest and most popular stories from each of our publications. Publisher's Note: It's that time of year, again—time for Fierce's annual publishing break. We will not be sending FiercePharma, FierceBiotech, FierceMedicalDevices or any of their sister publications until Tuesday, January 3. In the meantime, please check our websites for any breaking news in the biopharma industry. As always, thanks for reading, and have a great holiday and happy new year! See you in 2017. | |
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Top Stories Of The Week Wednesday, December 21, 2016 Actelion investors are said to be getting very restless over the fact that the biotech has yet to bring a deal with Sanofi home for the holidays. But shares rose Tuesday on leaked word that progress is being made and that Sanofi may have found just the right wrapping for the $30 billion deal that will get the Swiss biotech to accept. Monday, December 19, 2016 Harbour BioMed has bought an Atlas Venture-backed antibody player to further its ambition to build a pipeline of immuno-oncology programs. The deal sees Chinese VCs teaming with Big Pharma veterans to gain control of transgenic mouse platforms developed and commercialized in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Monday, December 19, 2016 Loxo Oncology reckons it could be just a year or so away from being able to file for approval of its lead drug, just months after reporting phase 1 data. Tuesday, December 20, 2016 GlaxoSmithKline’s HIV drug unit, ViiV Healthcare, has placed a risky development bet on two-drug regimens. But on Monday, the company announced some data that so far affirms its approach. Monday, December 19, 2016 Metalloproteinases (MMPs) are enzymes in the body that are critical to tissue regeneration and other normal processes. But when MMPs are overly abundant, cancer can grow and spread. Now researchers at the University of California at Riverside are solving the problem with compounds inspired by camels and llamas. Monday, December 19, 2016 South San Francisco-based Portola Pharmaceuticals has snagged $50 million in loans from partners Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb to help cover the additional costs of readying its breakthrough anticoagulant reversal agent for approval. Approval was sidelined in August when instead Portola was delivered an FDA complete response letter (CRL) tied to manufacturing and other issues. Wednesday, December 21, 2016 If 2016 was the year that med tech players bet big on emerging and exciting technologies, 2017 will be the year to buckle down, generate evidence of the new tech’s utility and find its niche in the industry. This year, numerous companies made moves in artificial intelligence, while GlaxoSmithKline and Verily threw down $715 million on a bioelectronics-oriented joint venture. Meanwhile, M&A and venture capital funding took a dip, and a few events highlighted current and future cybersecurity risks that may materialize as med tech becomes more connected. Tuesday, December 20, 2016 The FDA can’t directly control the price of EpiPen, but what it can do is approve competitors faster. Now, it's awarded a fast-track designation to Astellas’ DNA vaccine candidate for peanut allergies. Wednesday, December 21, 2016 The European Parliament is calling for a shake-up in legislation to make it harder for pharma companies to duck obligations on testing medicines in children. Resources Presented by: DocuSign DocuSign’s eSignature solutions modernize healthcare and life science organizations by eliminating paper and antiquated signature processes while meeting compliance requirements and reducing costs and errors. |
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