Eli Lilly is undertaking a strategic transformation that will result in the formation of new business units. The Indianapolis company’s Bio-Medicines unit will split into two separate businesses, with one focused on neuroscience and the other concentrated on immunology.
Shares of Autolus Therapeutics were up in trading after the company announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Moderna to develop new messenger RNA therapeutics for cancer.
AbbVie’s Rinvoq continues to demonstrate the medicine’s clinical potential to become the heir-apparent to the company’s blockbuster drug Humira, which will lose patent protection in 2023. In the company’s second-quarter 2021 report, AbbVie touted advances Rinvoq made throughout the three months, including positive Phase III data in ulcerative colitis.
Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya is raising $800 million to finance four more special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) that will be focused on taking biotech companies public.
During the Digestive Disease Week meeting, AbbVie presented late-breaking data analyses that showed both doses of Skyrizi met the co-primary endpoints of clinical remission and endoscopic response at week 12 compared to placebo in two Phase III studies. The Lancet published results from pivotal global Phase III clinical trials – Measure Up 1, Measure Up 2 and AD Up – evaluating Rinvoq (upadacitinib) in adults and adolescents with mild to severe atopic dermatitis who were candidates for systemic treatment.
Eli Lilly is cutting 163 jobs by closing its Dermira facility in Menlo Park, Calif. and selling off the latter company’s sweat drug Qbrexza, which is being acquired by Journey Medical.
French pharma giant Sanofi kicked off 2021 with a $1.4 billion cash acquisition of U.K.-based Kymab to bolster the company’s presence in immunology.
BioSpace presented the NextGen Bio “Class of 2021,” a list of up-and-coming life sciences companies in North America that recently launched.
A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to endorse emergency use of Moderna Inc.’s coronavirus vaccine during a meeting on Dec. 17, as the nation prepares to roll out a second vaccine.
AstraZeneca is acquiring Alexion Pharmaceuticals for $39 billion, with the deal expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.
