This week's appointments include a new CFO at Sanofi,  a new general counsel at Celgene plus new hires at TiGenix, Allogene Therapeutics, Aimmune Therapeutics, TikoMed and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, among others.

Sanofi links with researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Gesellschaft in the search for new antibiotics while a European joint venture called Hit Discovery Constance GmbH is set up to conduct high-throughput screening for biotech and academic partners. Also, Moderna Therapeutics bags another major partner, GSK exits its DMD deal with Prosensa, and more.

With a large chunk of its cash reserves spent to settle the Protonix patent case, India’s Sun Pharma may no longer be in position to follow its inorganic growth plans.

With the acquisition of Nycomed, Takeda’s long-standing strategy for becoming a world-class pharma has come into focus. The company spent much of the past decade building up its pipeline, globalizing R&D and importing Western staff, assets, platforms and processes. It also began a hectic period of M&A unparalleled among Japanese companies, culminating in 2011 with its acquisition of Nycomed. Now its focus will need to shift from big acquisitions and organizational makeover to execution.