Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has agreed to sell its LifeScan business, a diabetes-care unit, to Platinum Equity, a private investment firm, for $2.1 billion by accepting the binding offer for the business previously made by Platinum. The business had 2017 net revenues of approximately $1.5 billion. Read More

Sanofi Pasteur, Sanofi’s vaccine business, and Translate Bio, a messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics company, have formed a research and development pact and licensing deal worth up to $805 million to develop mRNA vaccines for up to five undisclosed infectious disease pathogens. Read More

Recipharm, a Jordbro, Sweden-based CDMO, has agreed to acquire Sanofi’s contract manufacturing business for respiratory products in Holmes Chapel, England for approximately $60 million. The companies also formed a supply agreement for products manufactured at the facility. Read More

WuXi Biologics, part of WuXi AppTec, a Shanghai-based contract service provider, is investing $60 million for a new biomanufacturing facility in Worcester, Massachusetts. This facility is being designed for both clinical and commercial supply. Read More

The US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on June 12 with Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar to further examine President Donald Trump’s blueprint to reduce the cost of prescription drugs.  Read More

The FDA has issued an Establishment Inspection Report to Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, a Mumbai, India-based pharmaceutical company, for Sun Pharmaceutical’s injectables facility in Gujarat, India and has closed its inspection, which has allowed product approval process to resume at the facility. Sun had received a Warning Letter for the facility in December 2015. Read More

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb outlined steps the agency is taking to advance value-based healthcare through the issuance of two final guidances on medical-product communications. The guidances are part of a larger drug-pricing plan by the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes goals to remove regulatory obstacles to value-based purchasing by payors. Read More

Biogen has formed an option agreement with TMS Co., a Tokyo-headquartered biopharmaceutical company, to acquire TMS’ investigational Phase II drug for post-stroke treatment as well as backup compounds in a deal worth up to $357 million. Read More

Emergent BioSolutions, a specialty pharmaceutical company and contract manufacturer, has started a $50-million expansion to the company’s fill/finish facility in Baltimore, Maryland. The multi-year expansion is expected to be completed in 2021. Read More

As part of the FDA’s recent patient-focused drug development efforts, the FDA has issued draft guidance to describe how patient-experience data and other information from patients and caregivers can be collected and used for medical-product development and regulatory decision-making.  Read More