Biogen Idec Inc has announced plans to acquire privately-owned Stromedix Inc of Cambridge, Massachusetts for $75 million upfront, plus milestones, in order to gain access to an investigational antibody for fibrotic disease.
Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd reported a 7% decline in revenue for 2011 and a 21% rise in operating costs, which resulted in a 95% drop in operating profit and a net loss for the year. Pressure on revenues of CHF 1.8 billion arose from the strength of the Swiss franc.
Venture-capital backed Oxitec Ltd of the UK has secured £8 million in new funding from a syndicate led by Oxford Capital Partners to finance further trials of a project designed to reduce populations of the mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever.
The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to raise the fees it charges the pharmaceutical industry and other companies for its services in order to pay for a proposed increase in its budget for the fiscal year starting on 1 October.
The US Food and Drug Administration has refused to approve a new indication for Novartis’s meningococcal vaccine, Menveo, which would have extended its use to infants and toddlers. The vaccine is already approved for older age groups.
Shire Plc reported revenue of $4.3 billion in 2011, up by 23%, reflecting strong demand for the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatments, Vyvanse and Intuniv. Sales were also helped by a regenerative medicines acquisition.
Zealand Pharma A/S said it is set to receive a $20 million milestone payment from its partner, Sanofi SA, following the successful completion of the global Phase 3 programme for its glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist, lixisenatide, for type 2 diabetes.
In seeking to increase R&D productivity, Big Pharma should consider outsourcing all of its discovery activity and focus instead on building capacity in translational medicine, Simon Moroney, the MorphoSys chief executive, told a meeting in London.
The UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is considering expanding its programme of scientific advice to include medical device companies and possibly venture capitalists, Andrew Dillon, the chief executive, told a meeting in London.
Venture-capital backed ArGEN-X BV of the Netherlands said that it has advanced a third therapeutic antibody candidate into preclinical development, in this instance an antibody targeting the c-Met signalling pathway which is implicated in many cancers.