Switzerland’s Actelion Ltd, which has a portfolio of treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), reported significantly higher sales and earnings for the third quarter and the first nine months of 2014.
Bluebird bio Inc has treated the first patient in a Phase 1/2 trial designed to establish the safety and efficacy of a gene therapy procedure in patients with sickle cell disease. This is reportedly the first ever gene therapy study in patients with this disorder.
Shire Plc said that it has agreed with AbbVie Inc to end their proposed merger, and that a break fee of $1.635 billion is now payable to it. The Dublin, Ireland-based company said it was well positioned to continue as an independent business.
Bicycle Therapeutics of the UK has raised £20 million in equity financing to bring its candidate peptide therapeutics into clinical development in cancer indications. The technology combines features of both antibodies and small-molecule drugs.
James Bowling, the interim chief financial officer of Shire Plc, has decided to step down from his position effective 31 March 2015. He is to join Severn Trent Plc as CFO. Shire said that it will start recruitment for a new CFO immediately.
The Roche group reported sales of CHF 34.8 billion (€28.8 billion) for the first nine months of 2014, unchanged from a year earlier. At constant exchange rates sales increased by 5%. The main event of the period was its acquisition of InterMune Inc for $8.3 billion in the third quarter.
A project aimed at sequencing the genomes of patients in the UK with cancer and rare, genetic disorders has moved a step closer towards implementation with the selection of a group of potential commercial suppliers of gene analysis services.
A newly formed German company, Rigontec GmbH, has found backers for a novel cancer treatment that makes a tumour seem like a viral infection, thereby prompting an attack by the immune system. The treatment involves neither live viruses, nor viral genes, nor particles common in oncolytic viruses, and therefore does not raise safety concerns common to the use of viruses, according to the developers.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first combination pill to treat chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infection. Harvoni (ledipasvir and sofosbuvir) is also the first treatment that doesn’t require co-administration with interferon or ribaviron.
In a major expansion of an existing gene-therapy deal, Oxford BioMedica Plc has reached an agreement with Novartis to supply it with greater quantities of lentiviral vector that can be used to gene