Solid grip on liquid cancers

Celgene Corp. is buying Gloucester Pharmaceuticals Inc. for Istodax romidepsin, a recently approved HDAC inhibitor that will expand its hematological malignancy franchise into T cell lymphomas.

Gloucester received FDA approval last month for Istodax as a single agent for relapsed or refractory cutaneous T cell lymphoma patients who have failed at least one systemic therapy. Market launch for the CTCL indication is planned for next year, as is an sNDA submission for peripheral T cell lymphoma (PTCL)...