| Welcome to FierceLifeSci Weekly Digest, your roundup of the biggest and most popular stories from each of our publications. | |
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Featured Story | | | Wednesday, February 21, 2018 While industry watchers were eagerly anticipating Amazon’s move into prescription drugs, the e-commerce behemoth snuck into over-the-counter sales with help from store brand expert Perrigo. |
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Top Stories Of The Week Friday, February 16, 2018 Roche has struck a $1.9 billion deal to acquire Flatiron Health. The takeover gives Roche ownership of the cancer software and real-world evidence that turned GV-backed Flatiron into a rising star. Friday, February 16, 2018 Novartis' new CEO, Vasant Narasimhan, has indicated that the company might spin off its struggling U.S. generic pill business—and that is what it is preparing to do, sources are telling Reuters. Thursday, February 22, 2018 Gilead’s Kite has struck a $3 billion deal to access Sangamo Therapeutics’ zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology. Kite will use the ZFN gene editing platform to create next-generation, off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies to cement its position as a long-term front-runner in the growing cell therapy space. Friday, February 16, 2018 Pfizer said several weeks ago that the FDA had updated the status of its troubled Kansas fill-finish plant, paving the way for drug approvals, and sure enough this week Novartis announced an FDA nod for its Copaxone generic being produced there. But a recently released document from the last inspection of the plant shows it continues to struggle, even repeating issues the FDA pointed out in a previous visit. Thursday, February 15, 2018 Induced pluripotent stem cells have the power to transform into any cell in the body, making them a prime candidate for regenerative medicine. Scientists at Stanford University believe stem cells can also teach the immune system to recognize and attack cancer—and they tested the concept in mouse models of breast cancer. Sunday, February 18, 2018 Apple has disrupted the music industry, the phone industry, the computer industry, the photography industry and an arguable list that goes on and on. In healthcare, some say its move into EHRs may be its biggest play yet—and could be a boon for pharma. Wednesday, February 21, 2018 Johnson & Johnson is beefing up its presence in the robotic surgery arena with the acquisition by its unit Apsis of French robot-assisted surgery company Orthotaxy for an undisclosed price. Tuesday, February 20, 2018 Flu vaccines reduced acute illnesses by 36% so far this year, the CDC says in an interim report. Though the number is much better than previously predicted, more studies are underway to understand the difference between vaccine types. Thursday, February 22, 2018 Clinical trial sponsors who fail to report study results on time to ClinicalTrials.gov are now put under public scrutiny, thanks to a new online tracker devised by clinical trial transparency advocacy project AllTrials. |
