Roche struck a $1.7 billion cancer drug pact with Blueprint Medicines, as advances in genetic testing for rare mutations drive lucrative deals for expensive treatments.

Quest Diagnostics saw a higher recovery in the company’s testing volumes in the United States where state and local governments were slowly lifting restrictions after the coronavirus lockdowns.

Eli Lilly

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co.’s radioactive compound to detect tau, an important characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.

Recent updates include the U.S. FDA posting a list of antibody tests that are being withdrawn voluntarily by the test’s commercial manufacturer.

Faster Drug Development Processes Likely to Outlive COVID-19 Published: April 30, 2020 By Gail Dutton BioSpace   The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the pace of drug development and regulatory approval […]

Routine medical tests critical for detecting and monitoring cancer and other conditions plummeted in the United States since mid-March, as the coronavirus spread and public officials urged residents to stay home, according to a new report by Komodo Health.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized at-home sample collection for LabCorp’s COVID-19 diagnostic kit, allowing patients to send in their nasal swab samples to the company’s labs for diagnosis.

French healthcare company Sanofi and U.S. start-up technology company Luminostics said they were joining up to work on developing a smartphone-based self-testing solution to see if someone has the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Thermo Fisher

Waltham, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific is acquiring Qiagen N.V., based in Venlo, The Netherlands. Thermo Fisher is offering 39 euros per share in cash for a transaction total of about $11.5 billion, and is also taking on $1.4 billion of net debt.

Business updates for various pharma and life science companies around the globe.