AstraZeneca Plc has taken steps to shore up its portfolio of drugs for cardiovascular and metabolic disease with the agreed acquisition of ZS Pharma Inc of the US which has a product under review at the Food and Drug Administration for treating hyperkalaemia.
H. Lundbeck A/S produced good sales figures for the third quarter and first nine months but its costs were adversely affected by a change in accounting policies and charges related to restructuring.
BioNTech AG, a German company with messenger RNA technology suitable for human therapeutics, has signed a multi-year licensing deal with Sanofi SA to discover and develop up to five cancer immunotherapies.
A drug-discovery partner for many years, MorphoSys AG is putting a new emphasis on developing its proprietary portfolio with the goal of commercialising its lead antibody therapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL) later in the decade.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new combination therapy for patients infected with HIV-1 that contains a new form of tenofovir, an antiretroviral medicine already use in other HIV combination treatments.
Germany-based CureVac, which is developing vaccines based on messenger RNA technology, has raised $110 million in a private share placement to support development of its pipeline. Concurrently it is changing its legal structure to become a joint stock company.
AstraZeneca Plc continued to build its pipeline of new medicines in the third quarter and first nine-months in preparation for a period of renewed growth. Revenue for the nine months was $18.3 billion, unchanged from a year earlier at constant exchange rates, but down by 2% at $5.9 billion for the third quarter.
Shire Plc has announced an agreed takeover of Massachusetts-based Dyax Corp for $5.9 billion upfront while saying that it still has the resources to pursue an unsolicited all-share bid for Baxalta, a recent spin-out of Baxter International.
Infirst Healthcare Ltd, which improves and repackages existing retail drugs, has obtained further funding from its principal investor, Invesco Asset Management Ltd, in order to launch its cold and pain relief products on the UK retail market.
Sanofi SA has scheduled a briefing for 6 November to discuss the group’s mid-term strategic and financial outlook following an unexpectedly large decline in sales of diabetes medicines, its most important business unit.