Illumina will broaden its offering of intellectual property to competitors to save its planned $1.2 billion acquisition of Pacific Biosciences. The new proposal offers "a perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable license to any of Illumina and PacBio's pre-closing patents and patent applications to any interested third party undertaking for use in the field of single-molecule, native long-read sequencing systems and associated sequencing chemistries."

The FDA is delaying the release of several proposed rulemakings related to medical devices, drugs and biologics. These include rulings on the modernization of the quality system regulation for medical devices and on excluding some medical software functions from definition of a device.

The FDA has accepted Osmotica Pharmaceuticals' marketing application for use of its candidate RVL-1201, or oxymetazoline hydrochloride ophthalmic solution, as a treatment for acquired blepharoptosis. An action date was set by the agency for July 16, 2020.

Eli Lilly and Co. announced plans to spend $400 million for the expansion of its manufacturing capabilities at its Indianapolis campus. The expansion project will include added capacity for its diabetes medicines, improvements to its current facilities that produce insulin, and initial capital investments for future drugs and therapies to be developed.

Preliminary safety and efficacy data from the first two patients participating in two Phase I/II clinical studies to assess CTX001, a gene therapy that uses CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, has been made public by the treatment's manufacturers, CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The company unveiled nine months' worth of data testing the therapy as a treatment for beta thalassemia as well as data for the past four months testing the therapy in sickle cell disease.

Press reports are speculating that Novartis and several other industry players could be interested in acquiring The Medicines Company. Novartis has plans to purchase firms worth up to $10 billion, according to its CEO Vas Narasimhan.

Ghana officials have approved the commercialization of biotech cowpea, a variety developed to be insect-resistant that is expected to decrease pesticide use dramatically while boosting crop yields.

IncellDx has partnered with Beckman Coulter Life Sciences to promote its four flow cytometry-based cancer assays in Europe. The tests, which will run on Beckman Coulter's instrumentation, are designed for single-cell analysis in lung and bladder cancers.

Hologic is divesting Cynosure, its medical aesthetics business, in a $205 million deal with an affiliate of investment funds managed by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year.

Providien, which provides solutions for global medical technology OEMs, has been fully acquired by Carlisle Companies. The firms did not disclose the financial details of the acquisition.