Upsher-Smith Laboratories, the US arm of Japan’s Sawai Pharmaceutical, has another challenging project in the pipeline with an agreement to develop and market a follow-on version of Mallinckrodt’s Acthar Gel (corticotropin). The Japanese firm revealed Upsher-Smith’s latest finances as it revealed first-quarter financial results.

Second-quarter earnings results from two of the Big Three – Teva and Mylan – hold much of the intrigue in August, while more competition in the nascent Avastin biosimilar market could materialize in Europe.

Denmark-based UNION therapeutics has bought LEO Pharma’s PDE4 inhibitor compound series for use in developing treatments for psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.

Relay raises $400m to kick off July’s second big week of US initial public offerings. Also, Ocumension and Immunotech launch Hong Kong IPOs, Amgen invests $421m in BeiGene’s $2.08bn offering, Cytokinetics gets up to $400m in deal and investment funding, and Imvax closes $111m series C round.