Evotec’s deal with the French drugmaker to develop stem cell-based treatments for diabetes takes on even more importance following the demise of the biotech’s two lead proprietary candidate therapies.

Novartis raises its game in immuno-oncology through Aduro collaboration, while Merck Serono partners up with a CAR-T program at Intrexon. UnitedHealth grows its PBM business by acquiring Catamaran; Horizon expands its orphan drug portfolio in buyout of Hyperion.

After disappearance last year of its drug hope DiaPep277 due to fraud, Germany’s Evotec is now looking to its Alzheimer’s MAO partnership with Roche and newly entered R&D alliance with Sanofi for future growth.

Hyperion Therapeutics settled with former Andromeda Biotech parent company Clal Biotechnology Industries (CBI) in relation to Hyperion's desired disposition of Andromeda, a business it bought from CBI in 2014 without knowledge of data tampering related to lead product candidate DiaPep277.