India's largest pharmaceutical company, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (“Sun Pharma”), and Jersey City, NJ - headquartered Organon & Co. signed a definitive agreement under which Sun Pharma will acquire all outstanding shares of Organon for $14.00 per share in cash. The transaction values Organon at $11.75 billion. Organon, established in...
Merck Licenses New Covid Treatment to 5 Indian Companies
Merck has inked pacts with multiple Indian companies: Cipla, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Sun Pharma, Hetero Labs, and Emcure Pharmaceuticals to license and produce a forthcoming treatment for Covid-19. The company, formally known as MSD, is in the process of developing molnupiravir in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. The investigational oral antiviral...
Biocon India Receives US FDA Approval for Biosimilar
India's Bangalore-based Biocon Ltd is the country's first company to have a "biosimilar" approved in the U.S. for Roche’s drug Trastuzumab, marketed as Herceptin, and used in treating certain breast and stomach cancers. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the company’s chairperson and managing director said, "This was the first biosimilar for Herceptin approved...
Merck Announces Research Collaboration with India's Steer Engineering
German life science and technology firm Merck announced a partnership for collaborative research on processing special effect pigments with Bangalore-based STEER Engineering, a company that has 60 global patents for its innovations. STEER will contribute process know-how, the technology platform, and its expertise in materials transformation, while Merck brings to...
India Calls for Post-Sales Monitoring of Cancer Drugs
An "Apex Committee for Clinical Trials" has been constituted by the Union Health Ministry on the directive of the Supreme Court of India. Outsourcing Pharma.Com reports that this committee now requires developers of cancer treatments approved without trials to monitor the first 500 patients to assess the drug’s safety and...