No­var­tis' Tafin­lar/Mekin­ist com­bo for melanoma gets pri­or­i­ty re­view des­ig­na­tion; Fo­s­un Phar­ma backs joint ven­ture's $190M share is­sue

→ Last Oc­to­ber No­var­tis $NVS won a break­through des­ig­na­tion for a com­bi­na­tion of Tafin­lar and Mekin­ist for its work in­volv­ing pa­tients with stage III melanoma with a BRAF V600 mu­ta­tion fol­low­ing com­plete re­sec­tion. To­day, the phar­ma gi­ant re­ports that the FDA al­so added a pri­or­i­ty re­view des­ig­na­tion to help speed things along. No­var­tis picked up these drugs from GSK in a ma­jor as­set swap.

→ As­traZeneca $AZN and Im­pe­r­i­al Col­lege Lon­don are join­ing forces to re­search the sci­en­tif­ic mech­a­nisms and un­der­ly­ing dri­vers of res­pi­ra­to­ry con­di­tions such as asth­ma and chron­ic ob­struc­tive pul­monary dis­ease (COPD). The fo­cus of the three-year col­lab­o­ra­tion will be on mech­a­nisms re­lat­ed to in­flam­ma­tion, neu­rophar­ma­col­o­gy, and lung ir­ri­tan­cy. The work will be co-led by As­traZeneca se­nior sci­ence di­rec­tor Mark Bir­rell and ICL pro­fes­sor Tere­sa Tet­ley. The phar­ma gi­ant will fund re­search roles at Im­pe­r­i­al with­in the res­pi­ra­to­ry phar­ma­col­o­gy group and will de­ploy As­traZeneca sci­en­tists to the site, as well.

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