Catalent has bought Paragon Bioservices, a contract development and manufacturing organization for $1.2 billion. This is the second major buyout of a gene therapy manufacturer in the last three weeks.

This deal will get Catalent a newly completed commercial-scale manufacturing facility near Baltimore and position Catalent firmly to capture some of the $40 billion gene therapy market.

There aren’t too many surprises in Fierce Pharma’s list of the top 15 Big Pharma companies in 2018. Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Pfizer, Novartis and Merck & Co were listed in the top 5 with Sanofi slipping 2 spots to number 7 and Gilead slipping 3 spots to number 13. Companies moving up the ranking were Bristol-Myers Squibb who moved up from 15 to 12 after buying Celgene. For next year, keep an eye on Takeda who recently purchased Shire.

Astellas, a pharmaceutical company, received FDA approval for Xospata in November 2018. This drug is for treatment of adult patients who have relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia with the FLT3 mutation.

On Monday at American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, Astellas released Phase 3 data that showed that patients lived a median 9.3 months after therapy, compared with 5.6 months for those receiving salvage chemotherapy.

With so much growth in the area of gene therapies, Thermo Fisher Scientific, an american biotechnology product development company, has decided to buy Brammer Bio, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focusing on manufacturing viral vectors for gene and cell therapies.

Sage Therapeutics, a clinic stage biopharmaceutical company, has received the first FDA approval for treatment of postpartum depression. Zulressa has a 60-hour IV infusion schedule for treatment which could make it challenging for new moms to receive treatment.

FiercePharma’s pharma twist on the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament is here again. This is your opportunity to pick your favorite pharmaceutical advertising campaign.

The FDA has approved Roche’s Tecentriq, the first immuno-oncology drug to treat patients with triple-negative breast cancer. Tecentriq is used in combination with Abraxane, Celgene’s chemo drug.

Tecentriq’s is also being studied in two other therapy areas, bladder cancer and lung cancer.

FDA Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, who was appointed by President Trump in 2017 is stepping down just shy of two years into his tenure. The commissioner was popular for his market-based policies to lower drug costs and work to speed new brands to approval.

In an effort to slim down its operations and pay off debt, General Electric has moved to sell its growing biopharma manufacturing business to Danaher. Danaher, a global science and technology innovator, would pay $21.4 billion in the deal which Danaher plans to have operate as a standalone business. The unit is expected to bring in about $3.2 billion in 2019 sales.

After revealing positive data from a phase 1b/2 Keynote-365 trial, Merck has stated it will run phase 3 studies testing Keytruda in tandem with Lynparza, the PARP inhibitor it shares with AstraZeneca; in a cocktail containing the chemotherapy docetaxel and steroid prednisone; and alongside Xtandi, a hot prostate cancer drug from Pfizer and Astellas.

As we settle in to 2019, FierceMedTech has provided its list of the top 2018 BioTech companies. The companies are: 10x Genomics, AblaCare, Allevi, Ceribell, Evidation Health, FineHeart, Glympse Bio, Invizius, Mekonos, Mindstrong Health, Pear Therapeutics, Potrero Medical, Profusa, Sana Health and Spry Health.

Takeda has met its goal in an ongoing Phase 3 study that covers eight countries and has enrolled more than 20,000 participants. The study, of Takeda’s shot to prevent dengue, prevented infections with four different serotypes of the virus. More results due out later this year.

The FDA has approved Abbott’s Amplatzer Piccolo Occluder which is being described as the world’s first implant designed for babies weighing as little as two pounds.

This device, which is smaller than a pea, is used to treat patent ductus arteriosus, the most common congenital heart defect in premature babies.

After receiving FDA last month for its prescription software to treat opioid addiction, Pear Therapeutics has posted $64 million in new fundraising.

The reSET-O prescription digital therapeutic for opioid use disorder consists of a 12-week cognitive behavioral therapy program along with outpatient treatment. It includes buprenorphine, a standard medication for opioid addiction, while helping to reinforce positive behaviors through interactive therapy lessons…

Lilly has confirmed that it will acquire targeted cancer drug maker Loxo Oncology for $8 billion. This will give the Indianapolis based company the TRK inhibitor Vitrakvi, the first drug approved by the FDA to target tumors according to a genetic abnormality rather than the location of the cancer.

This comes just days after Bristol-Myers Squibb announced its $74 billion acquisition of Celgene.

It has taken about a year, but GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer have agreed to an all-equity transaction that will combine their consumer units that will eventually be spun off to create to new company. The company will be under GSK’s name and have a market share that is 7.3% ahead of its competitors,  Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and Bayer.

A smartphone app designed by Pear Therapeutics has received FDA clearance for treating patients suffering from opioid abuse. This is the first prescription digital therapeutic to treat opioid addiction to be cleared by the FDA.

The app will be used in conjunction with standard outpatient…

Bayer announced last week that it will close its hemophilia manufacturing facility in Wuppertal, Germany, and lay off 350 workers. Its recombinant factor VIII production will take place at its site in Berkeley, California. The cuts in Germany come on top of the announced layoffs in October of more than 225 manufacturing workers in Berkeley.

The FDA has extended the patent for Pfizer’s top selling drug, Lyrica, which was set to expire at the end of this year. The company now has exclusivity until June 30, 2019. With Lyrica sales reaching nearly $3.5 billion in the US in 2017, this extension will allow Pfizer to protect about half of that figure next year.

Pfizer has announced that as of January 2019 it will be raising prices on 41 of its drugs. Thirty-seven will increase by 5%, three by 3% and one by 9%. In total, these drugs represent about 10% of Pfizer’s portfolio. These increases follow similar increases this past summer to about the same number of drugs.