Lest the upcoming March for Science suggest otherwise, scientists enlisted to combat the globe's scourge of hepatic horrors are less picketers and more paratroopers, swooping into Amsterdam for this week's International Liver Conference (ILC) to swap stories from the front, fighting hepatitis, NASH, NAFLD and other foes. Though light on awe-inspiring victories, this year's European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) will feature plenty of small wins, each a part of winning a bigger war.

Lyndra Inc., a company developing gelatin capsule pills that can last a week or more, has closed a $23 million series A financing it said will help it ramp up development, manufacturing and preparations for phase I studies this year. Polaris Partners, where CEO Amy Schulman is a partner, led the round.

Despite cancer costing Americans a staggering $87.8 billion in 2014, just about 5 percent of that tab, or $4.4 billion, came out of patients pocketbooks, according to government figures. Though insurance coverages can vary widely from case to case, the most common types of coverage – employer-based, Medicare and individual market plans – remain critical for cancer patients, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the advocacy affiliate of the nation's largest non-government, not-profit funding source of cancer research.

Frequency Therapeutics Inc., a company working to develop a progenitor cell-activating hearing restoration therapy, has closed a $32 million series A financing led by Cobro Ventures.

Oncomed Pharmaceuticals Inc. is embarking on an internal portfolio review in the wake of a phase II trial miss and a key partner loss Monday, news which pushed company shares (NASDAQ:OMED) 36.6 percent lower to close at $5.55 on Monday.

Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc. is buying Belgium's Ogeda SA for €500 million (US$532.7 million) up front and up to €300 million in milestone payments tied to the clinical and regulatory advancement of fezolinetant, a midstage nonhormonal treatment for menopause-related vasomotor symptoms (MR-VMS). If successful, it could potentially broaden the options for women seeking an alternative to estrogens and progestogens, which though commonly used to treat MR-VMS, have been associated with heightened risks of breast cancer, stroke and thromboembolism.

Ten months after an FDA complete response letter (CRL) set back efforts by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. to gain its first approval for Austedo (deutetrabenazine), an agency review has finally led to approval for the orphan-designated drug, a treatment for chorea – involuntary, random and sudden, twisting and/or writhing movements – associated with Huntington's disease (HD).

Astellas Pharma Inc. is buying Belgium's Ogeda SA for €500 million (US$532.7 million) up front and up to €300 million in milestone payments tied to the clinical and regulatory advancement of fezolinetant, a midstage nonhormonal treatment for menopause-related vasomotor symptoms (MR-VMS). If successful, it could potentially broaden the options for women seeking an alternative to estrogens and progestogens, which though commonly used to treat MR-VMS, have been associated with heightened risks of breast cancer, stroke and thromboembolism.