Company News

Sanofi SA is guiding for a high single-digit percentage rise in sales this year. Significantly, it also expects adjusted operating income to slightly surpass the sales increase indicating that the company is seeing a rise in profitability. The French company issued its first quarter earnings statement on 23 April – just a week before Belén Garijo takes over as chief executive. Dr Garijo succeeds Paul Hudson. She was most recently CEO at Merck KGaA and earlier in her career was an executive at Sanofi, leading pharmaceutical operations in Europe and Canada.

The Roche Group confirmed its forecast for a mid-single digit increase in sales this year following a first quarter during which sales increased by 6% at constant exchange rates, but declined by 5% in Swiss francs following a period during with the franc rose significantly in value against the dollar and other currencies. The company expects core earnings per share, expressed at constant exchange rates, to rise by a high single digit rate. This will make way for a rise in the annual dividend. As is customary, Roche did not report earnings for the quarter.

France-based Kurma Partners SA announced the final closing of a new fund on 23 April to support start-up companies, largely in Europe, which show promise of developing medicines for serious or incurable diseases. The final close of Biofund IV, at €215 million, is about a third higher than the size of Biofund III, its predecessor, and was supported by several large institutions. They include the Australian pharmaceutical company CSL Ltd, the European Investment Fund, and Bpifrance, the French national investment bank.

A small molecule inhibitor of the mutated RAS protein, a high priority cancer target, has successfully delivered a significant overall survival benefit for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. The results were obtained in a Phase 3 trial of the RAS inhibitor daraxonrasib and reported on 13 April. The developer is Revolution Medicines Inc, a clinical-stage US biopharmaceutical company with a portfolio of RAS-addicted cancers. These are cancers that are dependent on mutant RAS activity for their survival.

A small peptide drug in development at Oculis Holding AG of Switzerland has received regulatory designations from agencies in both Europe and the US for its promise as a treatment for optic neuritis, a disease that can seriously impair vision. Called privosegtor, the candidate drug activates pathways in the brain in order to promote the survival of neurons after an inflammatory attack. Optic neuritis can be caused by autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, or viral infections such as mumps, measles or the flu, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. 

Kailera Therapeutics Inc, a venture capital-backed enterprise with obesity assets in-licensed from China, has raised $625 million from an initial public offering on Nasdaq, one of the largest biotech IPOs in recent years. The funds will be used to advance the company’s lead product ribupatide, currently in global Phase 3 trials, as well as three other candidate obesity treatments that cover several mechanisms of action and methods of delivery.

Tubulis GmbH, a 2019 German university spin-out, is to be acquired by Gilead Sciences Inc for up to $5 billion – one of the larger biopharma transactions in Europe this year. Announced on 7 April, the deal involves an upfront payment of $3.15 billion and potential milestones of $1.85 billion for ownership of an early clinical-stage portfolio of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancer. As part of the agreement, Tubulis’ scientists and other staff will remain at their current location in Munich which will serve as a hub for ADC innovation for Gilead as a whole.

Eli Lilly and Company signalled its intention to broaden its neuroscience portfolio on 31 March with the planned acquisition of Centessa Pharmaceuticals Plc, a Nasdaq-listed developer of treatments for sleep-wake disorders. Centessa is developing a pipeline of orexin receptor 2 (OX2R) agonists. The lead product, cleminorexton, is in Phase 2a clinical studies for the treatment of two types of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, all chronic neurological disorders affecting sleep.

The Belgian biotech Galapagos NV has signed a binding agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc giving it rights to a prospective T cell therapy programme targeting autoimmune diseases. Concluded on 31 March, the deal centres on an early clinical-stage bispecific antibody designed to link a patient’s T cells to the B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) on plasma cells. In this way, it would eliminate pathogenic B cells and plasma cells in order to reduce inflammation and treat autoimmune diseases.

Abivax SA reported cash and cash equivalents of €530.4 million on 31 December 2025 giving the France-based biotech company sufficient funds to finance its operating expenses into the fourth quarter of 2027. This follows a successful public share offering in July that raised a net $700.3 million for the company on the back of unexpectedly robust results for two Phase 3 trials of its lead product obefazimod. Obefazimod is being studied in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, both subsets of inflammatory bowel disease.