Two Big Phar­ma com­pa­nies are go­ing to the mat over ge­net­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied mice in a li­cens­ing dis­pute.

Bris­tol My­ers Squibb is su­ing No­var­tis in New York over a dis­pute con­cern­ing an eval­u­a­tion, re­search and com­mer­cial­iza­tion agree­ment stretch­ing back to the late ’90s ini­tial­ly inked be­tween No­var­tis and BMS’ pre­de­ces­sor Medarex. The deal in ques­tion al­lowed No­var­tis to use Medarex’s patent­ed trans­genic mice to de­vel­op ther­a­peu­tic drugs. No­var­tis agreed to pay Medarex – and sub­se­quent­ly BMS – a roy­al­ty on sales of drugs it de­vel­oped us­ing the mice.

The agree­ment be­tween the two par­ties, ac­cord­ing to the law­suit, con­tains an ar­bi­tra­tion clause stat­ing that “the ar­bi­tra­tors shall de­ter­mine what dis­cov­ery will be per­mit­ted, based on the prin­ci­ple of lim­it­ing the cost and time which the par­ties must ex­pend on dis­cov­ery.”

In Feb­ru­ary 2019, No­var­tis be­gan pay­ing BMS roy­al­ties, un­der protest, on two drugs de­vel­oped us­ing the trans­genic mice. But even as it did, No­var­tis claimed the roy­al­ties were com­pen­sa­tion for a li­cense to ex­pired patents and there­fore un­en­force­able.

No­var­tis then filed a de­mand for ar­bi­tra­tion to re­solve the roy­al­ty dis­pute in March 2019. BMS and No­var­tis ini­tial­ly agreed to amend the agree­ment to re­solve the dis­pute through a pan­el of three neu­tral and in­de­pen­dent ar­bi­tra­tors, with BMS fil­ing an an­swer to No­var­tis’s ar­bi­tra­tion de­mand in May 2019, and the par­ties even­tu­al­ly reach­ing an agree­ment.

Af­ter the con­clu­sion of dis­cov­ery, BMS filed a mo­tion for sum­ma­ry de­ter­mi­na­tion and af­ter sev­er­al cross-mo­tions were filed, the pan­el de­nied No­var­tis’s claims and re­quests for re­lief. How­ev­er, while No­var­tis said it would file the award, it has not been signed and val­i­dat­ed.

BMS is ask­ing the court to con­firm the pan­el’s de­ci­sion and di­rect en­try of judg­ment against No­var­tis per the de­ci­sion.

Trans­genic mice are ones that have had DNA from an­oth­er source put in­to their DNA. They’re of­ten used in lab stud­ies, and have been be­hind many ap­proved drugs. Joseph Bryant, ad­junct pro­fes­sor at the In­sti­tute of Hu­man Vi­rol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land School of Med­i­cine told End­points News that de­vel­op­ers are like­ly watch­ing this case, as it’s a com­pli­cat­ed process.

This suit comes at a time when Greece is look­ing to hold No­var­tis ac­count­able for ac­tions that got them in trou­ble with the US gov­ern­ment.

Some Celgene shareholders aren’t happy with how Bristol Myers Squibb’s takeover went down.

On Friday, a New York federal judge ruled that they have a case against the pharma giant, denying a request to dismiss allegations that it purposely slow-rolled Breyanzi’s approval to avoid paying out $6.4 billion in contingent value rights (CVR).

When Bristol Myers put down $74 billion to scoop up Celgene back in 2019, liso-cel — the CAR-T lymphoma treatment now marketed as Breyanzi — was supposedly one of the centerpieces of the deal. After going back and forth on negotiations for about six months, BMS put $6.4 billion into a CVR agreement that required an FDA approval for Zeposia, Breyanzi and Abecma, each by an established date.

Ireland has been on a roll in 2022, with several large pharma companies announcing multimillion-euro projects. Now AstraZeneca’s rare disease outfit Alexion is looking to get in on the action.

Alexion on Friday announced a €65 million ($68.8 million) investment in new and enhanced capabilities across two sites in the country, including at College Park in the Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown and the Monksland Industrial Park in the central Irish town of Athlone, according to the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland.

In a bid to increase its market share in China, Amgen has agreed to a partnership with a Shanghai biotech — a collaboration and out-licensing agreement for two of its drugs.

Amgen and Fosun Pharma announced a deal Monday in a bid to increase Amgen’s presence in the country. The stated goal so far is to commercialize Amgen’s blockbuster psoriasis drug Otezla alongside Parsabiv, a drug for secondary hyperparathyroidism in adults with chronic kidney disease and on a specific type of dialysis.

As Bristol Myers Squibb braces for a court battle over a costly delay — at least for Celgene shareholders — for its CAR-T lymphoma treatment Breyanzi, the pharma giant is touting a label expansion in the second-line setting.

Breyanzi, also known as liso-cel, snagged a win on Friday in adults with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who: don’t respond to chemotherapy, or relapse within 12 months; don’t respond or relapse after 12 months; or are not eligible for hematopoietic stem cell transplant after chemo due to their age or comorbidities.

Another biotech standing on shaky financial legs has fallen victim to the bears.

Merck partner 4D Pharma has reported that a key lender, Oxford Finance, shoved the UK company into administration after calling in a $14 million loan they couldn’t immediately make good on. Trading in their stock was halted with a market cap that had fallen to a mere £30 million.

“Despite the very difficult prevailing market conditions,” 4D reported on Friday, the biotech had been making progress on finding some new financing and turned to Oxford with an alternative late on Thursday and then again Friday morning.