Company News

Autifony Therapeutics Ltd, a 2011 spin-out from GlaxoSmithKline Plc with technology to treat hearing disorders, has received £2.2 million in grant funding from UK Technology Strategy Board.

Christopher Viehbacher, the chief executive of Sanofi SA, has decided to move from Paris, France to Boston, Massachusetts, US, the home of the company’s biotechnology subsidiary Genzyme. The decision was first reported in Le Monde on 3 June and later confirmed by the company.

A UK-based service provider, BioSilta Ltd, has raised €2.5 million from its founding investor and the new investor Omega Funds in order to support the commercial expansion of its reagent-based growth systems for bacterial cultures.

ArGEN-X BV has announced its intention to make an initial public offering of shares on the Euronext exchange in Brussels in order to support the development of its therapeutic antibody portfolio. Further details were not yet available.

Merck & Co Inc has reached an agreement to acquire Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc for $3.85 billion in a move that will strengthen its portfolio of candidate drugs for hepatitis C infection, a disease that has only recently been treated with a new generation of direct-acting antiviral drugs.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new recombinant product for the treatment of Haemophilia A, an inherited, sex-linked blood clotting disorder that is caused by defects in the Factor VIII gene.

Taking advantage of an improved outlook for gene therapy, Oxford BioMedica Plc is proposing to raise up to £25.7 million in a private share placement and open offer to investors to finance development of its gene-based ophthalmology portfolio and manufacturing activities.

ArGEN-X BV has entered into a strategic antibody alliance with Shire Plc aimed at helping that company discover new therapeutics aligned with its focus on rare diseases. The new alliance follows a successful discovery collaboration between the two companies that started in 2012.

Novartis has reported that patients with polycythemia vera, a type of blood cancer, showed an improvement in their condition compared with the best available therapy following treatment with the JAK inhibitor Jakavi (ruxolitinib).

The UK cell-therapy company Adaptimmune Ltd has entered a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline Plc to advance the development of an autologous T-cell receptor product for patients with a variety of cancers.