Six new drugs including Luxturna will be price-listed in Japan on 30 August, with the Novartis gene therapy set to become the second-most expensive therapeutic product in the country. Behind another round of market expansion-related price cuts for selected drugs, discussions on possible changes to the repricing system are ongoing.

With a strong late-stage anti-inflammatory molecule in its pipeline, the challenge for Abivax is to garner the funds to take its obefazimod program forward. To that end, the company is continuing to do a major overhaul of personnel and is sharpening its corporate vision.

The major’s attempt to break into Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis has been cut short as a highly competitive market and pipeline, intensified by the entrance of biosimilars, renders further development of brazikumab impractical.

Zentiva has announced that Steffen Saltofte will become CEO of the privately-owned generics firm, replacing Nick Haggar who has led the company for over four years.