In the latest asset shuffle amongst Big Pharma companies, Merck & Co Inc has announced the sale of its consumer care business to Bayer AG for $14.2 billion. It will invest the proceeds into new assets including its checkpoint inhibitor MK-3475.
Merck & Co Inc said that is suspending a Phase 3 study of the experimental treatment vintafolide for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer on advice from the trial’s data safety monitoring board because the product didn’t show efficacy for progression-free survival.
After a meeting of its board of directors this morning, AstraZeneca Plc has issued a statement rejecting Pfizer Inc’s proposed cash and share takeover offer valued at £64 billion. The UK company described the financial and other terms as inadequate.
In a notice to the London Stock Exchange, Pfizer has announced an increase in its proposed cash and share offer for AstraZeneca Plc to £50 per share valuing the company at £64 billion. In a separate statement, AstraZeneca said its board will meet to discuss the indicative proposal.
Shire Plc has moved to further strengthen its portfolio with the purchase of Fibrotech Therapeutics Pty Ltd, an Australian company specialising in treatments for fibrosis. This comes a little more than three months after acquiring the rare disease specialist ViroPharma Inc.
Enterome Bioscience SA, a French company developing diagnostics for diseases linked to the gut microbiome, has raised €10 million in a Series B equity financing from a syndicate led by Seventure Partners and Lundbeckfond Ventures.
The tau pathway is the focus of a new investment by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company which is planning to spend $175 million in cash and potential milestones of $550 million to acquire the privately-owned biotechnology company iPierian Inc.
Zealand Pharma A/S, a Danish producer of peptide drugs, had a profit of DKK 28.8 million in the first 2014 quarter compared with a loss of DKK 57.3 million a year earlier.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc faced strong competition to its respiratory franchise in the US in the first quarter with the result that group sales declined by 2% at constant exchange rates and the company’s core operating profit was flat.
Silence Therapeutics Plc, a UK company exploring potential therapeutics based on RNA interference, has raised £11.4 million in a private equity placement with institutional investors and management to support its ongoing research and development activities.