BeiGene welcomes the return of the immunotherapy’s rights as an opportunity to make it the backbone of its solid tumors strategy. But Novartis cedes an opportunity to gain a competitor to established cancer immunotherapies from Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Novartis became the seventh drugmaker to legally challenge the White House’s Medicare drug pricing negotiation program. The company filed its lawsuit three days after HHS announced the first 10 drugs that were selected for the program — its heart failure medication Entresto was one on the list. HHS can expect to face more lawsuits from the manufacturers of the 10 drugs it named last week, experts have warned.

Novartis and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, already partners in cardiovascular disease R&D, are expanding their alliance to see if they can develop a next-generation therapy offering efficacy and dosing advantages. But competitors are already in the mix with programs addressing the same cardiovascular disease target.

Novartis’s acquisition of DTx Pharma brings a lead program for a rare disease with no FDA-approved therapies. But the deal could also help the pharma giant bring new RNA therapies to new places in the body, a top Novartis executive explained.

Novartis and BeiGene ended their partnership on a cancer immunotherapy for a target called TIGIT. Though BeiGene describes the termination as mutual, it comes before Novartis would need to pump more money into the alliance even as questions linger about TIGIT as a cancer target.

Dry eye disease drug Xiidra is the centerpiece of the Bausch + Lomb acquisition. The deal with Novartis also includes two experimental products, one for eye pain and the other a medical device for delivering medicines to the eye.

Novartis is acquiring Chinook Therapeutics in a $3.2 billion deal that brings two late-stage drug candidates for a rare kidney disorder. The Novartis drug pipeline already has a molecule in late-stage development for the same kidney disease, which could raise questions from antitrust regulators.

Novartis is partnering with Bicycle Therapeutics to see if the biotech’s technology can be used to develop better, more targeted radiopharmaceuticals. The deal covers two targets that were not disclosed.

Cell therapy offers a treatment option for some advanced blood cancers, but the manufacturing process is lengthy and complex. The biopharmaceutical industry is working on various technologies that could make manufacturing faster and more efficient, or perhaps supplant the current process altogether.

Nearly all patients treated with the Novartis drug iptacopan achieved the hemoglobin goals of a pivotal study compared to zero patients who received the AstraZeneca drugs that are the standard of care in a rare blood disorder. The results were presented Tuesday during the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Gene therapy can offer hope to patients with previously untreatable diseases, but there’s more work to be done to improve both the safety and efficacy of this therapeutic modality.

Novartis drug Scemblix is the first in a new class of drugs known as STAMP inhibitors. European Commission approval of the small molecule provides a new treatment option for chronic myeloid leukemia that is resistant to earlier treatments, as well as those cases in which patients cannot tolerate the other therapies for this blood cancer.

The two deaths reported following treatment with Novartis’s Zolgensma mark the first fatal cases of acute liver failure associated with the gene therapy. Liver complications are a known side effect risk of Zolgensma and other genetic medicines that are delivered by engineered viruses.

Novartis is partnering with algorithms startup Anumana to develop a new artificial intelligence-based solution for cardiovascular diseases. The goal is to find ways to detect heart conditions years before symptoms develop in order to enable earlier intervention.

The FDA has deferred a regulatory decision on an esophageal cancer drug from partners BeiGene and Novartis, citing the need to complete inspections of the China-based facilities where the drug is made. The agency said Covid-19 travel restrictions have prevented it from conducting those inspections.

Novartis is acquiring an FDA priority review voucher from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. The $100 million price tag is in the neighborhood of the going rate for these vouchers, which grant a company a shorter regulatory review timeline for a drug that addresses a rare or neglected disease.

Novartis is paying Precision Bio $75 million up front to begin a partnership aiming to develop in vivo gene-editing therapies for serious genetic blood disorders, such as sickle cell disease. One of the goals of the alliance is to make genetic medicines more globally accessible.

A Novartis drug that stops abnormal cell growth in breast cancer now has an additional FDA approval treating a group of rare disorders characterized by overgrowth in various types of tissue. The regulatory decision makes the drug, Vijoice, the first approved therapy for these disorders termed “PROS.”

Novartis unveiled a corporate restructuring that is consolidating some operations in cash-saving moves expected to lead to $1 billion in annual savings. The shakeup means the departure of several key executives, including Chief Medical Officer John Tsai, who has held that role since 2018.

The FDA approved Pluvicto, a Novartis radiopharmaceutical, as a new treatment option for advanced prostate cancer. Novartis added the therapy via its $2.1 billion acquisition of Endocyte four years ago.

Novartis is paying Voyager Therapeutics $53 million up front to begin a partnership focused on the discovery of capsids for central nervous system disorder gene therapies. Depending on the progress of the research, Voyager could earn up to $1.5 billion in milestone payments.

Novartis drug Leqvio now has the FDA’s green light, making it the first RNA interference medicine approved for lowering cholesterol. The regulatory decision sets the stage for competition against cholesterol medicines from Amgen and Regeneron that also address liver protein PCSK9.

Novartis is acquiring gene therapy developer Gyroscope Therapeutics and its lead program, a potential treatment for the vision loss disorder geographic atrophy. It’s the latest in a series of M&A moves made by Novartis to build up its gene therapy pipeline.

Novartis is partnering with BeiGene on the development of a drug that addresses TIGIT, a hot cancer immunotherapy target. The Swiss pharma giant is committing $300 million up front, and up to $700 million more upon exercising its option on BeiGene’s antibody drug.

Novartis is paying UCB $150 million up front to share in the development of two clinical-stage Parkinson’s disease drugs that offer new approaches to treating the disease. Depending on the progress of those drugs, UCB could earn up to $1.5 billion in milestone payments.

Novartis’s equity stake in Roche, shares acquired 20 years ago in a strategy to build up to a potential mega-merger, will be sold back to the company in a $20.7 billion deal. The cash proceeds could fuel Novartis R&D, as well as potential dealmaking.

A Novartis drug intended to prevent organ rejection has failed to beat out the standard of care therapy in a Phase 2 study in kidney transplant patients. Other clinical trial failures announced ahead of the Labor Day weekend include a Forte Biosciences atopic dermatitis drug, as well a cancer therapy from Takeda Pharmaceutical.

Novartis was unsuccessful developing bimagrumab as a treatment for a rare muscle disorder, but additional tests showed encouraging results in fat reduction. Startup Versanis Bio licensed rights to the antibody and plans to use its Series A financing for clinical trials testing the drug in obese patients.

Novartis reported Phase 3 study results for a targeted radiation therapy showing that treatment helped patients with advanced prostate cancer live longer. The company will present data from this pivotal study during the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

EMD Serono’s Tepmetko is one of a number of targeted cancer therapies that have passed FDA muster in the past year. The decision sets up the German company’s pill for head-to-head competition with a Novartis drug targeting the same genetic signature.