FDA approval of GSK’s Ojjaara in myelofibrosis introduces a new competitor to blockbuster Incyte drug Jakafi. Ojjaara was part of GSK’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Sierra Oncology last year.

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum is acquiring CTI Biopharma in a $1.7 billion deal centered on the biotech’s commercialized drug for the blood cancer myelofibrosis. Sobi says the drug, Vonjo, complements one of its own assets approved for a different blood disorder.

Polycythemia vera, a rare blood cancer characterized by the overproduction of red blood cells, now has its first FDA-approved drug treatment. The agency awarded the regulatory nod to a PharmaEssentia drug that reduces the levels of those blood cells.

The San Francisco-based company aims to complete at least one Phase III study by 2025, and it is weighing an IPO next year to fund more.

New York-based Stemline won Food and Drug Administration approval in December 2018 for Elzonris, a drug for blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, or BPDCN, an extremely rare but aggressive form of leukemia.

The companies will use Novo Nordisk’s experience with hemophilia and bluebird’s TALENs-based genome editing technology, megaTAL, with a particular focus on hemophilia A.

Notable CEO Matthew De Silva said the company has been able to successfully replicate its automated system, allowing for the export of the company’s technology and growth of its commercial use cases.

In a phone interview, CEO Jakob Lindberg indicated that data so far showed a study was doing well in terms of progression-free survival.

Bispecific antibodies like Amgen’s AMG 420 could present some competition to CAR-Ts. But could sequential use of the therapies – which target the same antigen – be possible?