Look back at pharma news in the week to July 19

By Barbara Obstoj-Cardwell. Editor

Further cementing an existing collaboration between the companies, last week Gilead Sciences agreed to pay up to over $5 billion to acquire rights to Galapagos’ portfolio as well as increase its equity stake in the Belgian biotech company. In a second deal termination with MacroGenics, France’s Servier has pulled out of a collaboration on flotetuzumab for acute myeloid leukemia. On the M&A front, there was AbbVie’s acquisition of Mavupharma and its STING candidate MAVU-104 thus expanding its oncology portfolio. Meantime, Capricor Therapeutics saw its shares double in value after presenting encouraging Phase II data on its Duchenne muscular dystrophy candidate CAP-1002.

Galapagos, long recognized as technical powerhouse, rewarded with independence