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# Since Our Last Issue ...
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/since-our-last-issue-87/
- Published: 2016-09-05T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T21:29:23.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5136697

**Danaher** is acquiring molecular diagnostics company **Cepheid** for about $4 billion. including indebtedness and net of acquired cash. Cepheid generated $539 million in annual revenue in 2015\. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, Cepheid will become part of Danaher's $5 billion diagnostics segment, joining its **Beckman Coulter**, **Leica Biosystems** and **Radiometer** businesses.

**Rigel Pharmaceuticals** says its experimental drug fostamatinib, an oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor, met the primary endpoint in the first of two double-blind studies in the FIT Phase 3 clinical trial for treating adult chronic/persistent immune thrombocytopenia. According to the company, 18% of patients receiving fostamatinib achieved a stable platelet response compared to none receiving a placebo control

**Novartis** is shutting down its Cell and Gene Therapy unit, which was created to develop white blood cells that can attack certain types of cancer, and moving its activities into other business and research locations and is eliminating 120 positions. The company says it still plans to file next year with FDA for approval of CTL019, a chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CART) therapy, for treating young people with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

**Takeda** has begun enrolling patients in its global non-interventional, observational multiple myeloma study. The company says the INSIGHT-MM study plans to enroll 5,000 patients over three years and follow each patient for a minimum of five years to track patterns in disease presentation, patient characteristics, treatment and outcomes to understand the real world experience of patients with multiple myeloma.  
  
**Amgen** has acquired global development and commercial rights from **Boehringer Ingelheim** for BI 836908 (AMG 420), a bispecific T cell engager that targets B-cell maturation antigen, a potential target for multiple myeloma. It is currently in Phase 1 studies and was originally licensed to Boehringer Ingelheim by **Micromet** before the company was acquired by Amgen in 2012\. According to the companies, Amgen will work with Boehringer Ingelheim to assume responsibility for the clinical development of BI 836908 (AMG 420), transfer manufacturing, and lead global regulatory activity in the future.