Following Roche, Merck and others into a hot field, the Humira maker will pay $150 million to license a preclinical TL1A antibody for IBD.

The Australia-based company had proposed raising $202 million via an initial stock sale, but withdrew its filing, citing its shares’ recent price appreciation on Australia’s stock exchange. 

The Japanese pharma paid $100 million to secure option rights to an Ascentage drug. Elsewhere, J.P. Morgan Private Capital closed its first fund and the FDA gave new COVID shot advice.

The failure of another trial adds to uncertainty around the benefits of the gene-based treatments, though industry analysts still expect Sarepta’s Elevidys’ to be unaffected.

The high court said the plaintiffs’ “desire to make a drug less available to others” did not give them standing to challenge the FDA's expansion of mifepristone’s approval.

Trial data suggest the shot — an important component of an upcoming combination inoculation — has proven at least as effective, and in some cases superior, to the company’s initial COVID vaccine.