Genmab A/S is to receive $2 million upfront from Novartis as part of a new collaboration in which the Swiss multinational will use Genmab technology to identify candidate bispecific antibodies against two disease target combinations.
Roche said that its antibody-drug conjugate, trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), has met its co-primary endpoint of a significant improvement in progression-free survival in a Phase 3 study of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH has reported new data from a Phase 2 study of its experimental vaccine for advanced colorectal cancer which showed that patients survived longer compared with a matched cohort from a larger UK Medical Research Council-supported study (COIN). The data were presented on 1 June at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.
Venture-capital backed Nabriva Therapeutics AG has agreed to sell rights to its lead pleuromutilin antibiotic to Forest Laboratories Inc in exchange for $25 million. Forest also has an exclusive right to buy the company outright within a specified time.
NicOx SA has decided not to exercise an option to fully acquire the specialist UK ophthalmic company, Altacor Ltd, but it will retain the 11.8% shareholding that it purchased in March. The decision was taken by the NicOx board on 31 May.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has launched a new public website that contains information about suspected adverse events relating to medicines that have been authorised for sale in the European Economic Area (EEA).
4SC AG said that its cancer therapy, resminostat, in combination with sorafenib, achieved a progression-free survival of 4.7 months after 12 weeks in patients with advanced liver cancer. Data will be presented at ASCO on 4 June.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company is mobilising researchers at 10 different institutes in the US and Europe to investigate the role of immunotherapies in treating cancer. The project has been launched under the name ‘immuno-oncology network’.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has announced the start of two Phase 3 studies that will evaluate the effectiveness of a new combination therapy for the treatment of patients with BRAF-positive metastatic cutaneous melanoma. The studies will also look at safety.
H. Lundbeck A/S said that its experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, Lu AE58054, met its primary endpoint in a Phase 2 proof-of-concept study of 278 patients with moderate disease already being treated with donepezil. Full data will be disclosed at upcoming medical meetings.