Company News

Anergis SA of Switzerland has raised CHF 8 million (€6.5 million) from its venture capital backers in order to advance its lead vaccine product, AllerT, for birch pollen allergy into Phase 3 development.

Amgen Inc and Merck & Co Inc have announced plans to collaborate on the development of a new combination therapy for advanced melanoma. This will combine Amgen’s oncolytic virus product with Merck’s PD-1 inhibitor.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc achieved its financial targets of a 1% increase in group sales and a 4% rise in core earnings per share at constant exchange rates in 2013.

Pfizer Inc said that its kinase inhibitor, palbociclib, significantly improved progression-free survival in a Phase 2 study of women with advanced breast cancer. A global Phase 3 trial of the drug is currently enrolling patients.

Smith & Nephew Plc of the UK is acquiring ArthroCare Corp of the US in a move that will strengthen its position in sports medicine. The value of the deal is $1.7 billion, or about $1.5 billion when ArthroCare’s cash reserves are taken into account.

Crossject SA, a French company with a needle-free pharmaceutical injection system designed for self-administration, is issuing 1,538,462 shares in an initial public offering on the NYSE Alternext exchange in Paris.

Ablynx NV has secured a new research collaboration with Merck & Co based on its technology for antibody-derived therapeutic proteins – this time to discover and develop candidate drugs th

Novo Nordisk A/S reported 7% gains in both sales and operating profit in 2013, while net profit powered ahead by 18%, prompting directors of the Danish company to vote a 25% dividend increase. Sales for the year were DKK 83.6 billion ($15.1 billion) and operating profit reached DKK 31.5 billion.

Janssen Research and Development LLC is to allow healthcare professionals and researchers access to anonymised data from its clinical trials, under an agreement negotiated with the Yale School of Medicine in the US.

The US affiliate of Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH is to start work with Duke University in North Carolina to study the natural history of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease which is characterised by inflammation and the scarring of lung tissue.