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Merck‘s current Chief executive officer, Kenneth C. Frazier, shall rest in his position beyond December 2019, when he turns 65. The announcement followed the decision of Merck’s Board of Directors that rescinded the CEO’s mandatory retirement at age 65. “CEO succession has been our top priority, and removing the mandatory retirement policy enables the Board to make the best decision concerning the timing of that transition,” said Leslie A. Brun, lead director, speaking on behalf of the Board of Directors.

Ferring Pharmaceuticals (https://www.ferring.com/) signed an agreement for the global commercialisation rights to nadofaragene firadenovec/Syn3 (rAd-IFN/Syn3), a novel gene therapy developed by Finnish gene therapy specialists FKD Therapies Oy as a treatment for patients with high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) unresponsive to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) therapy. rAd-IFN/Syn3 is currently undergoing Phase 3 development in the US under the sponsorship of FKD.

Ono Pharmaceutical (https://www.ono.co.jp/eng/) announced the establishment of the new Immune-mediated Inflammatory Diseases Consortium for Drug Development to run drug discovery research targeting immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Other participants to the initiative include Keio University, Kochi University, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation and Daiichi Sankyo. The consortium will work to overcome challenges due to limitations on clinical samples from immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and further increases in research costs.

South African Aspen Pharmacare (APN) (https://www.aspenpharma.com/) officially opened its new high containment facility in Port Elizabeth. The 23,000m² facility has been audited by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority and the German regulator, Landesamt für soziale Dienste des Landes Schleswig-Holstein (LAsD) both of which have granted the requested approval. At full capacity, the high containment facility is expected to produce approximately 3.6 billion tablets annually and package some 3 million bottles per month. The establishment of a new Training Academy is also ongoing in order to train employees.

The acquisition of Midazolam Nasal Spray (USL261) from Proximagen allowed UCB (https://www.ucb.com/) to pursue the consolidation of its epilepsy portfolio. The product is a nasally administered investigational midazolam formulation intended as a rescue treatment of acute repetitive seizures (ARS) in patients with epilepsy, which has completed Phase 3 clinical development. USL2611 already granted orphan drug and fast track designation by the FDA and is ready to be filed as a New Drug Application (NDA) in the course of 2018.

At the end of two years of profound restructuring and disinvestures, Valeant (http://www.valeant.com/) will change its name to Bausch Health Companies Inc. starting July 2018. According to the company, all entities that have separate established brands will continue to operate under the corporate umbrella using their existing names. As part of the name change, the Company will roll out a new corporate brand identity in July 2018, which will include new imagery and web site, and will trade under a new symbol, BHC.

The licensing agreement between Zymeworks and Daiichi Sankyo (https://www.daiichi-sankyo.ch/de/), started in 2016, has been expanded to allow Daiichi Sankyo to acquire licenses to Azymetric and Efect technology platforms in order to develop two additional bispecific antibody therapeutics. Zymeworks will receive an upfront technology access fee of US$18 million and may receive up to US$466.7 million in potential clinical, regulatory and commercial milestone payments.

Japanese’s pharma company Astellas Pharma https://www.astellas.com/announced its “Strategic Plan 2018”, comprehensive of the restructuring of operations in Japan and of the introduction of an early retirement incentive program. The goal is to optimise the organisational capabilities of the company, according to which all operations will be restructured, including R&D and Sales & Marketing, and its group companies in Japan.

Takeda https://www.takeda.com/closed the agreement to sell its majority shareholding of 51.34% in Guangdong Techpool Bio-Pharma, the Chinese company specialised in the research, discovery and marketing of urinary protein biopharmaceuticals and production of biopharmaceuticals in critical care. The shareholding is to be acquired in an all-cash by Takeda’s joint venture partner in Techpool: Shanghai Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd. and a fund managed by SFund International Investment Fund Management Limited.

The new integrated Asian Veterinary Research & Development (R&D) Center of Boehringer Ingelheim (https://careers.boehringer-ingelheim.com/), the second largest animal health company, has been officially inaugurated in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park. The center is a consequence of the merger between Boehringer and Merial and is the largest of its kind established by a multinational pharmaceutical company in China.