Novo Nordisk A/S produced significant gains in sales and earnings in the first nine months of 2011, mainly as a result of booming sales of Victoza (liraglutide) which was approved in Europe in July 2009 and in the US in January 2010.
AstraZeneca is raising its target for core earnings per share in 2011, but it expects that revenue will be flat or lower compared with 2010 as competition from generics and government healthcare reform exact a toll on sales.
Curetis AG of Germany has raised €9.6 million in additional Series A funding in order to support the development and registration of its molecular diagnostic technologies for the detection of infectious disease.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has announced plans to raise its dividend by a further 6% to 17 pence per share and increase the size of its share repurchases following a third quarter in which reported sales and operating profit before restructuring both rose by 3%. The growth in underlying sales, which excludes pandemic influenza-related products, the antidiabetic, Avandia (rosiglitazone), and the antiviral, Valtrex (valaciclovir), was 6%, a somewhat faster pace than in the previous quarter.
A Phase 3 trial of the multi-kinase inhibitor, regorafenib, for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer has met its primary endpoint of a statistically significant improvement in overall survival, according to Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Citing the need to make further improvements in productivity, Novartis has announced plans to eliminate 2,000 jobs globally over the next three to five years and to close two manufacturing sites in Switzerland and one in Italy. The measures were announced with the group’s third-quarter earnings on 25 October 2011.
Eli Lilly and Company has announced the withdrawal of its treatment for septic shock, Xigris, from all markets following a new clinical study that failed to show efficacy. The study did not throw up any new safety findings.
Prosensa BV is set to receive a credit of up to €5 million from the Dutch government, payable on the achievement of milestones, to support the development of preclinical compounds for Myotonic Dystrophy type 1 using RNA modulation technology.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Onfi (clobazam) from H. Lundbeck A/S as an adjunctive therapy for seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. The approval is for adults and children aged two years and older.
Silence Therapeutics Plc has entered into an agreement with Mirna Therapeutics Inc of Austin, Texas to apply its delivery technologies to the US company’s candidate microRNA-based therapeutics for cancer. Financial details weren’t disclosed.