Boehringer Ingelheim today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) for its novel, 3rd-generation, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation-specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), BI 1482694* (HM61713**).

Bayer and CRISPR Therapeutics have entered into an agreement to create a joint venture (JV) to discover, develop and commercialize new breakthrough therapeutics to cure blood disorders, blindness, and congenital heart disease.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) today announced that it has entered into two individual agreements with ViiV Healthcare, a global HIV company, to divest its pipeline of investigational HIV medicines consisting of a number of programs at different stages of discovery, preclinical and clinical development.

AstraZeneca has entered into an agreement to invest in a majority equity stake in Acerta Pharma, a privately-owned biopharmaceutical company based in the Netherlands and US. The transaction provides AstraZeneca with a potential best-in-class irreversible oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, acalabrutinib (ACP-196), currently in Phase III development for B-cell blood cancers and in Phase I/II clinical trials in multiple solid tumours.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TOKYO:4502) has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its respiratory portfolio to AstraZeneca. In 2014 Takeda defined four therapeutic areas of focus: Gastroenterology, Oncology, Central Nervous System, and Cardiovascular and Metabolic.

AstraZeneca today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the core respiratory business of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited ("Takeda"). The deal will include the expansion of rights to roflumilast (marketed as Daliresp in the US and Daxas in other countries), the only approved oral PDE4 inhibitor for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with GSK to reacquire all of its remaining rights to Prolia® (denosumab), XGEVA® (denosumab) and Vectibix® (panitumumab) in 48 countries in Asia, South America, Europe, Australia and other regions throughout the world.