Sanofi and Advent International, a private-equity firm, have finished negotiations for Advent’s acquisition of Zentiva, Sanofi’s European generics business, after signing a share purchase agreement worth EUR 1.9 billion ($2.2 billion) on an enterprise value basis. Read More

GE has announced plans to spin off GE Healthcare, its healthcare business, as a stand-alone company, following results from a strategic review. The plan is part of a larger reorganization and strategic alignment of the company. GE says it will focus on aviation, power, and renewable energy. Read More

AbbVie and Calico, a research and development company focused on aging research and therapeutics, and funded by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, have invested an additional $1 billion to update an existing collaboration for discovering and developing therapies for patients with age-related diseases, including neurodegeneration and cancer. Read More

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has appointed several senior leaders to the company's Executive Committee. The move includes the appointment of Joaquin Duato, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, to the position of Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee, where he will be responsible for both the Pharmaceuticals and Consumer sectors of the company. Read More

In a move impacting the pharmacy business, the online retailer Amazon has agreed to acquire PillPack, an online pharmacy in the US that offers pre-sorted doses of medications for home delivery for people taking multiple daily prescriptions. Read More

Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) plans to invest EUR 230 million ($267 million) in a new biologicals development center at the company’s research and development site in Biberach, Germany. The center will support BI’s biologics pipeline, which the company estimates is 40% of its entire pipeline. Read More

The FDA has issued an Establishment Inspection Report to Biocon, a Bangalore, India-based pharmaceutical company, for its sterile drug-product manufacturing facility in Bangalore. The FDA’s inspection of the facility is now closed. Read More

Mustang Bio, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company and a subsidiary of the biopharmaceutical company, Fortress Biotech, has opened a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell cell-therapy manufacturing facility in Worcester, Massachusetts. Mustang Bio says it anticipates processing patient cells by the end of 2018. Read More

The FDA has approved Shire’s submission for its new plasma manufacturing facility near Covington, Georgia for producing Gammagard Liquid [immune globulin infusion (human)] 10% Solution, a replacement therapy for primary humoral immunodeficiency. Read More

The FDA has approved Epidiolex (cannabidiol) oral solution from GW Pharmaceuticals, a London-based biopharmaceutical company, for treating seizures associated with two rare forms of epilepsy. This is the first FDA-approved drug that contains a purified drug substance derived from marijuana. Some analysts have projected near-term blockbuster status for the drug. Read More