Enyo Pharma SAS of France has secured €22 million in a Series A funding round to accelerate development of its lead treatment for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection which targets interactions in the cell that enable the virus to replicate.
AstraZeneca Plc expects to see a decline in both revenue and earnings per share this year as the statin Crestor loses exclusivity in the US making way for the market entry of lower priced generic products. Partially offsetting this will be revenue from new products and tight cost controls.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc expects its core earnings to return to growth in 2016 on the back of sales of new products, costs savings and the completion of an asset swap with Novartis which has left it with a large vaccine business and majority control of a new joint venture consumer products company.
Mission Therapeutics Ltd of the UK has raised £60 million in a series C financing round to support the development of enzyme inhibitors that are thought to have the potential of targeting difficult-to-treat cancers as well as neurodegenerative diseases.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug to show a survival benefit in liposarcoma, a type of soft tissue sarcoma that is difficult to diagnose and treat. The drug, Halaven (eribulin mesylate), is a chemotherapy developed by Eisai Inc.
Higher US revenue kept Roche on an even keel in 2015 with a 1% rise in group sales to CHF 48.1 billion (€43.4 billion) and a 2% decline in operating profit. With pharmaceuticals accounting for three-quarters of group sales and nearly half of these sales coming from the US – the performance of the US market continued to be pivotal.
Galapagos NV has stopped clinical development of a candidate drug for ulcerative colitis (UC), a form of inflammatory bowel disease, because it failed to show efficacy in a Phase 2a study. The compound targets the G-coupled protein receptor 84 (GPR84).
Novartis announced significant changes to its operating structure, and new leadership for its Alcon eye division on 27 January as its financial results for 2015 showed declines in both operating and net income.
Inivata Ltd, which is developing a blood test for detecting cancer from circulating tumour DNA, has raised £31.5 million in a Series A funding round supported by the investment group Imperial Innovations Group Plc.
A new £40 million fund that will help bring promising UK academic research into commercial development has been set up by AstraZeneca Plc, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Johnson & Johnson Inc and universities in London and Cambridge.