Company News

Novartis appears set to become a first mover in gene therapy again with the agreed acquisition of AveXis Inc, a company with a late-stage gene replacement therapy for treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

A Phase 3 trial in which a combination of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and the IDO1 inhibitor epacadostat were being studied in patients with metastatic melanoma has been stopped after failing to show a benefit in progression-free survival, according to Incyte Corp and Merck & Co Inc.

Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP) has separated from the Rothschild banking group to become an independent firm owned by its 55 employees and trading under the new name Andera Partners. The move comes as European venture capital becomes more international, and competition for promising assets increases.

France-based Cellectis SA has acquired a new partner for its portfolio of products for cancer that are based on donor T cells that have been engineered to target specific antigen on cancer cells. The allogeneic portfolio had been licensed to Pfizer Inc and Servier.

Paris-based Sofinnova Partners has launched a new €275 million fund to expand the scope of its investments in life science to include late-stage private and public companies primarily located in Europe.

Subject to approval from US regulators, Bayer AG hopes to conclude its $66 billion takeover of Monsanto Co in the second quarter. The transaction would be the third merger of its kind in just under 12 months, illustrating the global consolidation of the agrochemical and seed businesses. This is being enabled by biotechnology, which makes it possible for crops to be engineered to resist insects, and digital technology which gives farmers new tools for managing their fields.

Evotec AG plans to swap its German legal structure for a form of European incorporation that will enable it operate across European borders without the need for a network of subsidiaries. The European incorporation, Societas Europaea, SE, is part of the still-evolving European capital market.

Vobarilizumab, a protein therapeutic that showed efficacy at Phase 2 in rheumatoid arthritis, has failed to meet the primary endpoint of dose response in a separate Phase 2 study of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, which only recently launched an agreed bid for the Belgian cell therapy company TiGenix NV, has confirmed that it is “considering making an approach” to Shire Plc – a much larger company. Shire responded that “it has not received an approach from Takeda.”

GlaxoSmithKline Plc is to take full control of a joint consumer products venture that it set up with Novartis in 2014 as part of an asset swap agreement that also saw the UK company buy Novartis’ vaccines business and sell many of its oncology assets.