Company News

Scott Gottlieb, the former Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, has been elected to the board of Pfizer Inc where he will also serve on the board’s regulatory and compliance and science and technology committees.

Children 10 years and older will be eligible for treatment with Victoza (liraglutide), a non-insulin medication for Type 2 diabetes, assuming a positive opinion by the European Medicines Agency is cleared by the European Commission. The positive opinion was issued on 28 June, extending Victoza’s indication to children and adolescents with Type 2 diabetes. It is already approved for adults. Victoza is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist that slows digestion, prevents the liver from making too much glucose and helps the pancreas produce more insulin when needed.

MODAG GmbH, a new German company focused on neurological diseases, has raised €12 million in a Series A financing round to bring its lead product for multiple system atrophy (MSA) into clinical development. MSA is a rare neurodegenerative disorder characterised by the progressive loss of function and death of different types of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. According to the US National Institutes of Health, there are currently no drugs that are capable of slowing the progression of the disease.

Sanifit Therapeutics SA has raised €72.2 million from venture finance and convertible bonds to take its orphan drug candidate SNF472 into Phase 3 development for the treatment of calciphylaxis, a disease where calcium accumulates in small blood vessels in fat and skin tissues. This causes blood clots and serious infections which frequently leads to death.

The fundraising consisted of €55.2 million in Series D finance and €17 million in convertible bonds.

Erytech Pharma SA has teamed up with SQZ Biotechnologies Co, a spin-out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to develop antigen-specific immune modulating therapies for cancer. The collaboration uses Erytech’s technique for encapsulating drug substances inside red blood cells to inform drug development by SQZ. The MIT spin-out is a cell therapy company.

The Spanish pharmaceutical company Almirall SA has received a €120 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support research into new treatments for inflammatory and dermatological diseases.

The loan is being granted under a European Commission ‘Investment Plan for Europe’ that is mobilising public funds for new technologies and employment. The company will direct the funds towards research into pathologies such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and actinic keratosis, a type of precancerous cutaneous lesion.

AbbVie Inc is making a cash and stock offer valued at $63 billion for the specialty pharma company Allergan Plc, a move that will diversify its portfolio ahead of the loss of patent protection for its lead rheumatoid arthritis product Humira (adalimumab). Humira generated revenue of $20 billion last year, or 68% of AbbVie’s total revenue, but it will lose patent protection in 2023.

Luxembourg-based Vesalius Biocapital Partners has closed its third life science fund, raising €120 million for later-stage European companies. The fundraising includes a commitment of €30 million from the European Investment Fund and new and existing investors from Europe, the Americas and the Middle East and North Africa.

The UK medical charity LifeArc is to make a $30 million equity investment in the antibody therapeutics company Kymab Ltd along with a licencing agreement giving it rights to the company’s drug discovery platform. The investment is taking place in two stages. An initial $10 million has already been paid, while the final $20 million will come at a future date. Kymab will also receive a percentage of revenues that LifeArc generates from any products discovered and commercialised using its technology.

Jean-Paul Kress, formerly of Biogen Inc and Sanofi Genzyme, is to take over as chief executive of MorphoSys AG on 1 September, succeeding Simon Moroney, the company’s co-founder and CEO. Dr Kress will assume the leadership position just as MorphoSys seeks to register and commercialise its first wholly-owned product tafasitamab for diffuse large B cell lymphoma.