Datamonitor Healthcare's five-year review of initial public offerings of CNS-focused companies shows that they held their own compared with other biopharma sectors. The markets rewarded pain and neurodegenerative disease-focused players in particular. Step-up multiples in CNS IPOs slightly outpaced those for other biotechs.

CEO Joe Jimenez delivers on his strategy to free up resources at Novartis by divesting its non-core blood transfusion diagnostics business for $1.7 billion.

Australia’s CSL has probably made the right decision to settle a price-fixing lawsuit in the United States and thereby avoid a protracted legal battle that could have seen further substantial legal costs even if it eventually won. But the proposed settlement has some analysts concerned the legal basis for the lawsuit was thin as it stemmed from regulatory questions raised in a failed industry merger.

Spanish firm Grifols has announced plans to begin a safety trial of a next-generation inhaled formulation of alpha1-proteinase inhibitor later this year. The news follows the decision by the US FDA to grant orphan drug designation to the product for cystic fibrosis in April.