No­var­tis on­col­o­gy chief Bruno St­rig­i­ni is on the way out of the phar­ma gi­ant.

In a brief state­ment No­var­tis point­ed­ly said that St­rig­i­ni had de­cid­ed to re­tire “from No­var­tis and the in­dus­try” for per­son­al rea­sons.

Bruno St­rig­i­ni

The state­ment sug­gests that St­rig­i­ni — a cen­tral fig­ure in one of the lead­ing on­col­o­gy bio­phar­ma groups in the world — won’t be mak­ing the usu­al end run out of one Big Phar­ma and in to a new job. Such moves have be­come rou­tine, es­pe­cial­ly as biotechs and eq­ui­ty stakes beck­on from a thriv­ing sec­tor of the drug de­vel­op­ment world.

No­var­tis has made some big moves in can­cer since hir­ing St­rig­i­ni from a se­nior Mer­ck po­si­tion in the sum­mer of 2014, par­tic­u­lar­ly in its role in spear­head­ing the first CAR-T to hit the mar­ket and in­te­grat­ing GSK’s on­col­o­gy port­fo­lio three years ago. The deal pre­ced­ed St­rig­i­ni’s ar­rival by a few months.

St­rig­i­ni is step­ping out of the ex­ec­u­tive com­mit­tee and then plans an ear­ly-2018 de­par­ture as Narasimhan se­lects a key re­place­ment for his team.

CEO Joe Jimenez, who’s al­so head­ed out of No­var­tis as de­vel­op­ment chief Vas Narasimhan pre­pares to shift to the helm, did the hon­ors.

I’d like to thank Bruno St­rig­i­ni for his con­tri­bu­tions and achieve­ments. He has nav­i­gat­ed the busi­ness unit through the Gleevec patent ex­pi­ra­tion and has led the suc­cess­ful in­te­gra­tion of the GSK On­col­o­gy Prod­uct Port­fo­lio ac­quired in 2015. I wish him the best for his fu­ture.

As the Asia-Pacific clinical trials sector continues to grow rapidly, Novotech the Asia-Pacific-based CRO is seeing biotech clinical activity up by 26%. But says there is still plenty of capacity in the region that features advanced medical facilities, supportive regulatory environments, and more than 2.3 billion people, largely treatment naïve, living in urban areas.

China, South Korea and Australia have the most studies registered as recruiting or about to recruit according to ClinicalTrials.Gov.

The leading Swiss newspaper has reported that the US is considering placing tariffs on pharmaceuticals from Switzerland. Roche and Novartis stock each fell 1% after the news broke.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported that US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told pharmaceutical representatives the Trump administration was considering the move. Tariffs do not appear to be in the immediate offing, but they would potentially affect Swiss giants Novartis and Roche along with other companies that manufacture in Switzerland, including Merck KGaA and US biotech Biogen, which is currently constructing a new facility in the country.

A couple of months ago a newly public BridgeBio turned some heads by disclosing that it had made a bid for subsidiary Eidos Therapeutics in hopes of gobbling up the 34% stake that it doesn’t already own. Two offers later, the parties are calling it off.

A special committee of independent directors at the smaller biotech led by RA Capital’s Rajeev Shah and ex-Portola CEO William Lis first rejected the parent company’s initial offer — which would swap 1.3 BridgeBio shares for each Eidos share — on September 12. In the latest announcement, BridgeBio revealed that it eventually raised the offer to 1.5 shares and made $110 million available for all-cash or mixed consideration options, but Eidos still wasn’t interested.

Months after Revance amended the terms of its Botox biosimilar collaboration with Mylan, the Newark, California-based drug developer disclosed its co-founder Dan Browne is stepping down, in what appears to be mysterious circumstances.

The company — which is also developing a rival to Allergan’s formidable Botox franchise — on Monday said Browne is departing “due to misjudgment in handling an employee matter,” that has also culminated in his resignation from Revance’s board of directors.

Shionogi has some big questions to answer if they plan to win an FDA panel’s backing for their new antibiotic.

While investigators have provided positive efficacy data for their new product to treat cases of complex urinary tract infections, an FDA review has flagged an imbalance of deaths between the antibiotic and a control arm. And they want the agency’s outside advisers to take a good hard look at that when they meet on Wednesday.

In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka shook stem cell research with his discovery that mature cells can be converted into stem cells, relieving a longstanding political-ethical blockage and throwing open medical research on everything from curbing eye degeneration to organ printing.

But that process still has pitfalls, including in risk and scalability, and some researchers are exploring another way first hinted at years ago: new technology to convert mature cells directly into other mature cells without the complex and time-consuming process of first making them into stem cells.

Exactly one year after kicking off a pivotal Phase III study for its lead drug — a companion for cancer patients receiving radiotherapy — Galera is looking to the Nasdaq for some new cash to complete the clinical work and fuel its commercial drive.

CEO Mel Sorensen has penciled in an $86 million ask, which was filed on the same day as liver disease company 89bio and rare disease diagnostics shop Centogene. The trio marks the first batch of IPO filings in the wake of two highly anticipated but ultimately disappointing public debuts by BioNTech and Vir, signaling dwindling biotech fervor on Wall Street. 89bio and Centogene are seeking $70 million and $69 million, respectively.