Takeda Pharmaceutical Company and Shire have come to terms for a proposed acquisition of Shire by Takeda for approximately $62 billion following a series of earlier proposals. The latest proposal, announced on May 8, has been approved by both companies’ boards of directors. Read More

Eli Lilly and Company has agreed to acquire ARMO BioSciences, a Redwood City, California-based late-stage pharmaceutical company focused on immuno-oncology, for approximately $1.6 billion. Read More

AstraZeneca has agreed to sell and license the rights in specified markets to its antipsychotic drugs, Seroquel and Seroquel XR (quetiapine fumarate), for $538 million to Luye Pharma Group, a Shanghai-based pharmaceutical company. The deal is part of AstraZeneca’s strategy to focus on three main therapeutic areas: oncology; cardiovascular, renal and metabolism; and respiratory. Read More

Lonza is investing in mid-scale mammalian cell biomanufacturing capacity and new cell-therapy suites at its site in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The investment includes the installation of multiple 6,000-liter bioreactors and cell-therapy suites. Read More

Auromedics Pharma, a US subsidiary of Aurobindo Pharma, a Hyderabad, India-based generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturer, has voluntarily initiated a recall of 1.5 million bags of assorted antibiotic and anti-seizure injectable medicines due to lack of sterility assurance. Read More

Aspen Pharmacare, a KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa-headquartered pharmaceutical company, has opened a 1-billion rand ($80-million) high-containment drug-product manufacturing facility in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Products from the facility will be for export markets. Read More

The FDA has issued a draft guidance to specify the criteria for trading partners and stakeholders to request a waiver, exception, or exemption from requirements of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act. The law outlines a series of multi-year steps to build an electronic, interoperable system to identify and trace prescription drugs distributed within the US. Read More

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International plans to change its name to Bausch Health Companies, effective July 2018.   The new name is taken from its subsidiary, Bausch + Lomb, an eye-care company, which Valeant acquired in 2013. Read More

Merck & Co. and Moderna Therapeutics, which is focused on messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics, have expanded an existing pact to develop and commercialize mRNA cancer vaccines to now include shared antigen mRNA cancer vaccines. Merck has also taken an equity stake in Moderna. Read More

AMRI, a contract research, development, and manufacturing organization, has launched a new multipurpose aseptic active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) line at the company’s facility in Valladolid, Spain. The line adds to AMRI’s other two aseptic API manufacturing plants in France. Read More