Plus deals involving Abliva/Owl, Selecta/Cartesian, Novo Nordisk/Genevant, AbbVie/Aldeyra and more.

Cidara Therapeutics has been given a lifeline after Johnson & Johnson’s opt-in on its universal flu prevention treatment – though the big pharma is expected to pass it onto a third party.

Clinical work on the US biotech’s drug-Fc conjugate, CD388, has been stopped by partner Janssen amid a broader company shift, but there are several paths forward for Cidara after the asset showed early promise in a Phase IIa trial.

Melinta CEO and a representative of the Infectious Diseases Society of America call on a Senate HELP subcommittee to push for passage of PASTEUR Act. Introduced in the Senate and House for the third time this year, the measure would establish a subscription model to pay drug developers upfront for certain antimicrobials.