Catalent has agreed to acquire Cook Pharmica, a Bloomington, Indiana-based CDMO of biologic-based drug substances and parenteral drug products, for $950 million. Read More

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has agreed to sell the remaining assets of its specialty global women’s health business for $1.38 billion. Proceeds from these sales and the recently announced sale of its contraceptive, Paragard (intrauterine copper contraceptive), total $2.48 billion and will be used to pay down debt. Read More

US Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and eight other Democrats in the US House of Representatives have written a letter to the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asking for information on its outcomes-based payment approach for Novartis’ new chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) treatment, Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), a recently approved anti-cancer therapy. Read More

Aspen Global Incorporated, part of the Aspen Group, has agreed to acquire the residual rights to AstraZeneca’s anesthetic medicines in a deal worth up to $770 million. Read More

A European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) advisory committee has adopted a positive opinion on a biosimilar candidate referencing Roche’s cancer drug, Herceptin (trastuzumab), from Samsung Bioepis, an Incheon, South Korea-headquartered biopharmaceutical company. Herceptin is a top-selling drug for Roche with 2016 sales of CHF 6.78 billion ($7.04 billion). This is part of  DCAT Value Chain Insights  Pipeline News. Read More

Pfizer has filed suit in a US federal district court against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) on the grounds of anti-competitive practices, particularly in reference to J&J’s top-selling inflammatory drug Remicade (infliximab), which had 2016 sales of $6.97 billion. Read More

Recipharm, a Swedish CDMO, has agreed to acquire Roche’s solid-dosage manufacturing facility in Leganés, Spain and has formed an agreement with Roche to supply product from the facility. Read More

Kaneka Eurogentec, a Liège Belgium-headquartered CDMO, plans to construct a new GMP biomanufacturing facility adjacent to its current facility for the large-scale production of recombinant proteins, antibody fragments, and plasmid DNA. Read More

Johnson Matthey and Snapdragon Chemistry, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-headquartered provider of flow chemistry process design and technology development services, have formed a collaboration to provide integrated continuous manufacturing services for flow-chemistry from development to full-scale GMP manufacturing. Read More

The European Commission has approved Pfizer’s and Merck KGaA’s Bavencio (avelumab), a drug for treating a rare form of skin cancer. The drug is slated by some analysts as a potential blockbuster. This is part of DCAT Value Chain Insights Drug Approval News. Read More