Company News

Novartis’ management continued to implement measures to improve productivity in the third quarter as the company faced generic competition for the oncology drug Gleevec, and sales of its Alcon eye division declined.

A new Swiss biotech company, Inositec AG, has been launched with seed capital of CHF1.4 million ($1.42 million) to advance a drug candidate into the clinic using a new small molecule technology developed by researchers at ETH Zurich.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc reported higher revenue across its three main businesses in the third quarter, including a rise in sales for new respiratory products. This more than offset declines for Advair, the company’s off-patent asthma medicine.

Evotec AG, which operates a global drug discovery business, is proposing to acquire Cyprotex Plc, a London-listed contract research organisation, which has developed a service for measuring the performance of drugs under development called ADME-Tox.

  Roche Holding AG said that its sales rose 4.0% in the first nine months to CHF 37.5 billion (€34.59 billion), measured at constant exchange rates, compared with a 6% gain in the previous nine month period.

A new medicine that is expected to protect against a rare liver disease known as primary biliary cholangitis, has been recommended for approval in the European Union following a Phase 3 study in which the treatment showed a clear benefit over placebo.

The Helsinn Group has joined the growing number of pharmaceutical companies that have decided to support early stage life science with a dedicated investment fund – the Helsinn Investment Fund SA.

UK-based Crescendo Biologics Ltd has secured its first commercial deal since its founding in 2007 with the signing of a collaboration and license option agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. The deal concerns several preclinical drug candidates that have been derived from the VH antibody domains of transgenic mice.

Patients with head and neck cancer who were treated with nivolumab experienced a better quality of life than those treated with chemotherapy, according to an outcomes study released on 9 October at the European Society for Medical Oncology congress in Copenhagen.

France-based Innate Pharma SA said data from a Phase 1 study of its antibody lirilumab administered with nivolumab to patients with refractory solid tumours, showed a similar safety profile to that of nivolumab alone. The data were presented on 9 October at ESMO.