Cephalon has joined with JAFCO, a Japanese private equity group, to put $24 million into SymBio Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese biotech studying its lead drug for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma, according to Fierce Biotech. SymBio said it will use some of the Series E funding to in-license drugs for the Asian market.

SymBio has four drug candidates. The company's lead candidate—SyB L-0501 (bendamustine HCl)—is an antineoplastic agent, which received Japanese market approval last fall for the treatment of refractory/relapsed low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma. The approval of bendamustine HCl for these indications occurred during phase I of the study. Investigators are now studying the therapy for other cancer indications.