A US district court has ruled against MorphoSys AG in a patent infringement suit that the Germany company brought against Genmab A/S and its partner Janssen Biotech Inc relating to Darzalex (daratumumab), their marketed drug for multiple myeloma.
The decision, by the District Court of Delaware, means that MorphoSys’ claims for damage have been rejected and its three US patents for a similar drug have been declared invalid.
The Belgian molecular diagnostics company Biocartis Group NV has raised €55.5 million in a private share placement to support the commercialisation of its molecular diagnostics, particularly for the detection of cancer.
The company’s diagnostics platform uses a real-time polymerase chain reaction system to derive information from biological samples in a wide variety of settings. The company is expanding in oncology and currently has tests supporting the detection of melanoma and colorectal and lung cancers.
BioNTech AG is to expand its drug discovery capabilities following an agreement with MAB Discovery GmbH to acquire that company’s antibody generation unit. The two companies, both based in Germany, have been collaborating since 2013. Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.
UK-based Autifony Therapeutics Ltd has achieved a first milestone under an option agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, triggering an undisclosed payment for work on small molecule potassium channel modulators for the treatment of central nervous system disorders.
Philip Hampton, non-executive chairman of GlaxoSmithKline Plc since May 2015, has decided to step down from the position, triggering the start of recruitment for a successor, GSK announced on 21 January 2019.
Mr Hampton’s departure comes nearly two years after the appointment of Emma Walmsley as chief executive, and the recently announced restructuring that will see GSK spin out an enlarged consumer healthcare business into a separately listed company. This restructuring is expected to take place over the next three years.
Nanobiotix SA has announced plans to make a public offering of its shares in the US with the submission of a registration statement Form F-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The timing and size of the issue haven’t been decided.
A partnership between German and US companies aims to develop gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases that would cross the blood-brain barrier and deliver therapeutic agents to the brain.
The collaboration is between Sirion Biotech GmbH, which specialises in viral vector technologies for gene and cell therapies, and Denali Therapeutics Inc, a developer of treatments for diseases of the central nervous system.
Neem Biotech Ltd, which is researching treatments for bacterial infections, has received £50,000 in public funding to advance its studies into treatments for bacterial infections in wounds. The company is investigating potential therapies targeting biofilms which are formed by bacteria as a protection against the human immune system and antibiotics.
The German biotech company Immunic AG is to execute a reverse merger with Vital Therapies Inc of the US in the first step towards an anticipated share listing on Nasdaq. The two companies have agreed to an all-share transaction that will create a new company, Immunic Inc, the majority of whose shares will be held by Immunic AG.
AstraZeneca Plc has shaken up its pharma R&D structure, creating two units with parallel commercial operations whose heads will both report directly to the chief executive, Pascal Soriot
An oncology unit will be led by José Baselga, previously physician-in-chief at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, US, while a unit for biopharmaceuticals, covering cardiovascular, renal, metabolic and respiratory medicines, will be headed by Mene Pangalos, a current AstraZeneca executive.