Focus On Asia
Kyoto-based venture moves HQ to California to expand R&D and business outreach for its regulatory T-cell technology, as it raises around $46m in public and private funding.
Heads of Novartis Biomedical, World Economic Forum and Indian majors like Sun Pharma’s SPARC, among others, discuss generative AI in drug discovery along with pointers for India to leapfrog the R&D process
Lilly’s Mounjaro arrives in India, with the 2.5mg vial priced at under $41 in a market that has over 100 million diabetics and increasing obesity rates. Will the product see sharp demand like in China, carving out a chunk of the pie ahead of the potential arrival of semaglutide generics and could there be concerns of ‘suitcase' exports?
South Korea's LigaChem is kickstarting a growth and globalization drive through a potential future acquisition of UK ADC player IKSUDA.
Professor Anil Koul shares vignettes of his life and career trajectory, a captivating mix of hope, science and destiny that took him to the lab of eminent cancer biologist Alex Ullrich at the Max Planck Institute and also saw him contribute to the development of breakthrough TB drug bedaquiline. He also talks about Medicine 3.0 and the intersection of science and spirituality.
UK pharma will invest $2.5bn in Beijing R&D hub, build a vaccine manufacturing site with BioKangtai, and partner in chronic disease with Syneron and in oncology/immunology with Harbour BioMed.
A new report from a domestic institute on South Korea’s biopharma M&A trends shows a pickup in activity, but that this remains relatively weak and small-scale. It calls for broader domestic government support to build expertise, drive innovation and globalization.
Miltenyi’s leadership calls for a streamlined regulatory framework as India gears to scale in cell and gene therapy. Executives from the German group also talked to Scrip about helping advance local capabilities, delivering point-of-care CAR- T cell therapy to hospitals and pricing dynamics.
Amgen’s AI model to predict proteins in the “bright Goldilocks zone of viscosity” with over 80% accuracy minus a wet lab experiment holds immense potential, VP Research Haldar said at an event as he spoke about a “hinge moment” for AI in pharma
Move to acquire profitable Tokyo-based venture part of Japanese major's strategy of building a broader ecosystem for dementia detection and care.
MSD's chief information & digital officer emphasizes the need for pharma to accelerate technology adoption cycles to ensure drugs reach patients faster. The role of a robust digital backbone for seamless data flow, leadership commitment in digital transformation and an upcoming technology center in Hyderabad are other aspects he discussed.
Plus deals involving Hyundai/Pharma/Avelos, Yuhan/Boehringer Ingelheim, SciClone/Eisai, Viatris/Nxera/Idorsia, Nxera/Holling and Takeda/BridGene.
A stake acquisition in US venture Illexcor allows India's Zydus to get in on the ground floor for a potential once-daily sickle cell disease treatment. The candidate showed promising preclinical results in a field that has yielded mixed outcomes for global majors like Novartis, Pfizer and Novo Nordisk
While diverging from partner Merck & Co. in its study dosage of sacituzumab tirumotecan, Kelun has garnered the world’s first approval, in China, for a TROP2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, for the treatment of lung cancer.
With two major deals since just the beginning of the year in Japan, private equity groups appear to be ramping up their presence in the country's biopharma sector, amid ongoing activity across the wider APAC region.
Zydus Lifesciences plans to expand global markets for patented products of French orthopedic tech company Amplitude Surgicals which it is acquiring from PE firm PAI Partners and others. Could the European business also serve as a buffer to upheaval in the US amid talks of tariffs?
Can India’s Mittelstand or small and medium enterprises win the quality game and what could help? Sectoral insights from defense and FMCG industries and from other countries like Germany might hold the key for Indian pharma, a panel of experts at a recent event opined.
Sun is acquiring Checkpoint Therapeutics, opening up opportunities to build out its strategy in the onco-derm segment with the US firm’s FDA-approved anti-PD-L1 mAb.
Chinese biotech TYK Medicines says its EGFR inhibitor outperformed AstraZeneca’s same-class blockbuster Tagrisso in a pivotal Phase II trial for first-line use in brain metastases resulting from EGFR mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer.
Indian CDMOs could consider collaborating with allies in Europe amid a focused effort via a new industry body to counter existing challenges like China’s manufacturing, regulatory and policy advantages and a shortage of funding and talent in the country even as talk of US tariffs throws a new spoke in the wheel