Probiodrug AG, a German specialist in Alzheimer’s disease, has raised €22.5 million with an initial public offering of its shares on the Amsterdam Euronext exchange. The offering of 1,524,205 shares was priced at €15.25 per share. Kempen & Co acted as the bookrunner.
Bavarian Nordic A/S, which for years has supplied the US government with smallpox vaccine for its emergency stockpile, has secured a major new deal with Johnson & Johnson Inc to develop a vaccine against the Ebola and Marburg viruses and explore additional disease targets.
DBV Technologies SA, which is developing a patch for peanut allergies, has raised about €104.5 million in an international share offering most of which was in American depositary shares on Nasdaq in the US.
Forendo Pharma OY of Finland has secured €12 million from a syndicate of investors including Novartis Venture Fund and MS Ventures to bring a candidate drug for endometriosis into the clinic. The drug inhibits the enzyme 17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1.
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.