Shire Plc has made its third move this year to strengthen its portfolio of rare disease medicines with the acquisition of San Diego-based Lumena Pharmaceuticals Inc which has two candidate compounds in clinical development for rare liver diseases.
AstraZeneca PLC has entered into a research agreement with the Tianjin Medical University in China to investigate the causes of cardiac fibrosis, a condition that can lead to heart failure. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has reported the failure of a second Phase 3 trial of its candidate medicine for acute coronary syndrome darapladib. In the study the compound did not achieve the primary endpoint of reducing major coronary events compared with placebo and the standard of care.
An antiviral agent intended to prevent cytomegalovirus infections in patients receiving bone marrow transplants, has been highlighted in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. The compound, letermovir, originated at AiCuris GmbH & Co of Germany.
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.