Pharm Exec's latest annual listing of the top biopharma players paints a stable picture of performance for the usual placeholders, but change and disruption to current business models could upend positioning in the years ahead.

Japan's Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp (4508.T) has agreed to buy Israeli drug maker Neuroderm (NDRM.O) for $1.1 billion in cash as part of a strategy to grow its business in the United States.

Attaching curcumin, a component of the common spice turmeric, to nanoparticles can be used to target and destroy treatment-resistant neuroblastoma tumor cells, according to a new study published in Nanoscale. The study, conducted in partnership by researchers at Nemours Children’s Hospital and the University of Central Florida, demonstrates a potentially novel treatment for neuroblastoma, the most common cancer in infants.

The NHS has announced a ban on homeopathy and herbal medicine as they say it is "misuse of scarce funds".

Officials today ruled that the treatments are among dozens of medicines which should not be funded by the health service.