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There has been a fall in the number of drugs in development, latest annual data from Citeline show, but the figure is thought to point to a flattening, rather than contracting, of the pipeline.

The company has succeeded where rivals have failed by showing impact of the new mechanism in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in twin Phase III trials, OBERON and TITANIA.

The equity firm was looking to sell its holding in the Italian drugmaker not long ago. Now it is offering €10.90bn for a full takeover.

Driven by its interest in Phase III PTSD drug TSND-201, Otsuka will pay $700m up front to acquire privately held Transcend. The deal follows termination of Otsuka’s efforts with Rexulti in PTSD.

Public Company Edition: Grifols announced its intention to sell shares for a portion of its US business through an initial public offering, although a first quarter report noted that the IPO window did not widen as much as expected in Q1; the follow-on market, however, was robust in late March.