Cristiana Bernini

Albert Bourla was nominated at the beginning of October by Pfizer’s Board of Directors as the new CEO of the company; he will succeed to Ian Read starting from 1st January 2019. The change in leadership is part of a multi-year succession planning process, according to Shantanu Narayen, Lead independent director of the Board of Directors.

Albert Bourla, 56, is currently Pfizer’s Chief operating officer (COO); he also run the Innovative Health business, establishing the Innovative Health Emerging Markets region. In January 2014 he became the group president of the Vaccines, Oncology and Consumer Healthcare business unit.

After the transition, Ian Read will assume the role of Executive Chairman of Pfizer’s Board of Directors; he served as CEO since December 2010.

The new headquarter of Johnson & Johnson (https://www.jnj.com/) for the Asia Pacific region has been inaugurated in Singapore on May 10th. The facility is located in Singapore’s Science Park and it consists of a cutting-edge Design Lab, the state-of-the-art training facility Leadership Lab and the company’s first international Human Performance Institute. According to J&J, the new location will host more than 1,400 employees from its pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer businesses.

A license agreement to utilise the novel ‘payload’ (drug-linker) technology developed by Nerviano Medical Sciences has been signed with Oxford BioTherapeutics: the company will use the platform developed in Italy to expand the of development its Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADC) portfolio for the treatment of cancer. The deal gives OBT access to a new payload technology based on a next-generation duocarmycin analogue. Nerviano will receive undisclosed fees, development linked milestones and royalties for granting OBT access to its technology.

Pierre Fabre acquired several assets in the preclinical and early discovery phases from the  US biotechnology company Igenica Biotherapeutics, including innovative immunotherapies targeting immune checkpoints that may reverse the resistance to existing immunotherapies. Igenica Biotherapeutics’ activities focuses on antibodies in the field of immune-oncology and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancer.

Pharnext has closed a strategic agreement with the Chinese company Tasly Pharmaceutical. The operation include a financial investment by Tasly in Pharnext, the development of a new pipeline of synergistic combinations through a shared platform and the license of Pharnext’s lead product for the Chinese market. PXT3003 is Pharnext’s lead product currently in an international Phase 3 trial for the treatment of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A and has received the orphan drug status in Europe and the United States. PXT864 has generated positive Phase 2 results in Alzheimer’s disease.

The operation follows the Merck’s decision to focus its future strategy on its pipeline of innovative medicines. The deal includes an upfront payment of 170 million €, milestone payments of up to 500 million € plus royalties on future product sales. Merck and Fresenius will also enter into supply and services agreements for drug development support and manufacturing services. Closing is expected in the second half of 2017, subject to regulatory approvals. Merck’s Biosimilars business is located in Aubonne and Vevey in Canton de Vaud, Switzerland and it is focused on oncology and inflammatory disorders.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the biosimilar product infliximab-abda across all eligible indications. It will be marketed and distributed in the US by Merck. The product has also been approved for marketing in 28 European Union (EU) member states, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Australia and Korea. The drug is indicated for reducing signs and symptoms in patients with adult and pediatric Crohn’s disease, adult ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis, and for the treatment of adult plaque psoriasis. Samsung Bioepis is responsible for the development and manufacture of all immunology and oncology biosimilar candidates in its pipeline, as well as global clinical trials and regulatory registration in all markets worldwide for these candidates.

A strategic research collaboration and licence option agreement has been signed between Exscientia and Sanofi in the area of metabolic disease, such as diabetes. Exscientia will apply its unique platform to identify and validate combinations of drug targets that could work synergistically.  Starting with over a thousand disease-relevant target combinations, Exscientia will prioritise those opportunities with promising bispecific binding potential. Rapid delivery of multiple bispecific targets will be empowered by a pipeline of Exscientia capabilities driven by artificial intelligence and enabled automated design.

Servier and CTI BioPharma agreed to expand their existing license and development collaboration agreement for pixantrone. The drug has been granted conditional marketing authorization from the European Commission for the treatment of adult patients with multiply relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma (NHL). As a specific post-authorization requirement, the product is currently being investigated in a phase III clinical trial to confirm the current indication and possibly to support broader indications. Servier will have rights in all markets except the US, where CTI BioPharma will retain the commercialization rights.