> In its half-year financials this morning, Roche announced that it has cut some early-stage efforts from its pipeline, namely four NMEs and a series of combos. This includes phase 1 efforts RG7888, an OX40 MAb in solid tumors; RG7159/obinutuzumab for renal transplant; and a combo of its OX40 MAb along with its checkpoint inhibitor Tecentriq. Roche HY slides
> Canadian startup PreciThera, which is working on developing therapies for orphan bone diseases, has finished off a series A round worth $29 million, with help from Sanderling Ventures, Arix Bioscience, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, CTI Life Sciences and Emerillon Capital. Release
> German biotech-CRO hybrid Evotec, which has been ramping up the deals over the past 18 months, has penned yet another drug discovery collaboration, this time with Storm Therapeutics. The pair will work on new small molecule epigenetic drugs for cancer and other areas, with the focus on new RNA modulating enzyme targets. Statement
> Celgene said in its financials today that it has expanded its collaboration with Forma Therapeutics to work on more candidates in protein homeostasis, inflammation and immunology, as well as neurology. This comes out of the 2014 deal it struck with the biotech, which sees its gain $195 million, and which has a clause that could see Celgene buy out Forma in the future. Barclays analysts said: "In terms of the pipeline, key data sets we look for include phase 2 results for GED-0301 in ulcerative colitis and for phase 1/2 results from FUSION evaluating Pomalyst plus Imfinzi in multiple myeloma by year end." Statement