News

The European Medicines Agency has issued new guidelines on how companies should design trials for Alzheimer’s disease, dementias, and for Parkinson’s disease.

Alizyme Plc, a UK speciality pharmaceutical company, has announced the departure of its finance director, David Campbell, and its non-executive director, Richard Forrest. Both departures coincide with the publication of the company’s 2008 first-half-year results and a statement by the auditors, Deloitte & Touche, about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.

Ablynx NV of Belgium has secured an upfront cash payment of €10 million and a stake in future profits in a ground-breaking drug discovery and development deal with Merck Serono relating to two undisclosed targets in oncology and immunology.

Genmab A/S announced that Claus Møller, its executive vice president and chief operating officer, has resigned in order to concentrate on his job as chairman of the board of IPC-International Plc and to spend more time with his family. Dr Møller has been with Genmab since its founding in 1999.

Shareholders of Acambis Plc, have accepted a takeover bid from Sanofi Pasteur Holding which values the UK company at around £276 million.

Investors in SkyePharma Plc will experience a demonstration of the proposition that a slim cut of a big pie is better than a fat cut of a small one.

IP Group Plc, which commercialises intellectual property from UK research institutions, reported a 15% decline in the estimated fair value of the drug companies in its portfolio in the first half of 2008. Despite this, it said that many of its holdings continue to make excellent operational and commercial progress.

The Marseilles-based biopharmaceutical company, Innate Pharma SA, has moved its lead product for cancer, IPH 1101, into a Phase 1/2 trial in follicular lymphoma. The progress of the early-stage clinical trial was highighted in the company’s latest financial report to shareholders, which was issued on 29 August 2008.

GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay $125 million upfront to participate in the development and commercialistion of a group of drugs known as potassium channel openers for epilepsy and other indications.

The chief executive officer of Oxford BioMedica Plc, Mike McDonald, has left the company after serving in that position for only 58 days.