SK Bioscience’s acquisition of top 10 CDMO marks first major acquisition as part of its growth acceleration strategy and the biggest such investment so far by a Korean vaccines firm. Execs say deal is aligned with SK Group’s wider moves to 'rebalance' its businesses.

SK pharmteco CEO Joerg Ahlgrimm talks to Scrip about the "excitement" at BIO, potential CDMO shifts amid the US BIOSECURE Act, and the Korean CDMO's focus on business as usual as it seeks to diversify and grow.

Long-running protests by South Korean doctors against government reforms, including raising medical school admissions, continue to intensify with a one-day rally by community doctors and the threat of an indefinite walkout later this month. The pharma industry is also feeling the impact on clinical trials and sales. 

Plus deals involving Kissei/JWP, Shionogi/Cilcare, Takeda/Torrent, Genome & Co./Debiopharm, Kaken/J&J, CStone/Ewopharma, MediLink/BioNTech and more.

Bukwang and subsidiary Contera have become the latest to fail to progress a novel Parkinson's therapy to late-stage trials after a Phase II miss, although several other Korean firms remain in the race for the challenging indication, albeit mainly in Phase I-II.

Positive new and updated data at ASCO for Rybrevant plus lazertinib could position the combo more strongly against Tagrisso in the first-line treatment of high-risk, EGFR-mutated non-small lung cancer.