Kevin Grogan

On the back of a stellar showing in Phase III, apitegromab is going to be filed in the US and Europe in the coming weeks for spinal muscular atrophy and CEO Jay Backstrom believes it will be a $2bn blockbuster.

The FDA has approved the IL-23 inhibitor for Crohn's disease to add to its ulcerative colitis approval and put the drug in a position to compete with the likes of AbbVie's Skyrizi and Johnson & Johnson's Stelara.

The Pierre Fabre-partnered allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy is already available in Europe but hopes of a US approval have been hit by a complete response letter citing problems at a third-party manufacturing facility.

The Danish drugmaker, best known for dermatology, has secured the European rights to Shanghai Junshi Biosciences’ cancer therapy toripalimab, which was the first Chinese PD-1/L1 checkpoint inhibitor to be approved in the US.

The Swiss firm's plans to go public are a boost for the antibiotics space and for hopes that the continent's biotechs may follow their US counterparts and find financial solutions on the capital markets.

As rival Bavarian Nordic closes in on US approval for its chikungunya vaccine for people aged 12 and older, the French biotech has presented positive data for its already-approved jab Ixchiq in adolescents and children.

CEO Pascal Soriot said the deal, which will create more than 700 new jobs, reflected “our strong belief in Canada's potential as a global hub for life sciences innovation, and the value of public-private collaboration.”

CEO Djordje Filipovic tells Scrip that after talks with "multiple other potential partners,” the firm chose the Japanese group for its expertise and marketing capabilities in rare diseases” to be the licensing partner for tadekinig alfa in the US.

Just a few months after bagging US approval based on impressive progression-free survival data for its PI3K inhibitor, the Basel-headquartered giant is trumpeting a significant overall survival benefit for a drug that is expected to reinvigorate its breast cancer franchise.

The Danish drugmaker's stock keeps falling as investors wait to see if Johnson & Johnson will opt in to co-develop a successor to the partners' multiple myeloma big earner Darzalex, but analysts have been heralding Genmab's bright prospects for assets such as Epkinly and Rina-S.