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.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) today announced that they have entered into a collaboration agreement with UCLA as part of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Immuno-Oncology Rare Population Malignancy (I-O RPM) research program in the U.S.

Abbott and University of California San Francisco (UCSF) published research identifying a newly discovered human virus, known as human pegivirus 2 (HPgV-2), and proving it is found among some patients with hepatitis C (HCV).

AstraZeneca and its global biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, today announced a three-year collaboration with the newly established Wallenberg Centre for Protein Research (WCPR). The collaboration aims to develop new technologies for biologics production and to identify new targets for disease research in the ground-breaking area of the Secretome

Novo Nordisk and IBM Watson Health today announced that the two companies will work together to create diabetes solutions built on the Watson Health Cloud. The agreement combines Novo Nordisk's deep understanding of diabetes with IBM's leadership in cognitive computing.