Company News

Novo Nordisk A/S, the Danish producer of diabetes products, reported a 3.4% advance in revenue to DKK 20.5 billion (€2.75 billion) in the third quarter and a 13.2% rise in net profit to DKK 6.4 billion.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Roche’s Gazyva (obinutuzumab) in combination with the chemotherapy chlorambucil for patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).

Galecto Biotech AB has raised SEK 40 million (€4.5 million) in follow-on funding from its existing investors to progress its portfolio of candidate molecules that modulate galectins, a family of proteins.

Cytos Biotechnology Ltd of Switzerland said that it will seek shareholder approval for a rights issue valued at up to CHF 17.6 million (€14.3 million) in order to take its lead immunotherapy for allergic asthma through Phase 2b proof of concept.

AstraZeneca is maintaining is forecast for a decline in core earnings per share this year that is steeper than the expected fall in revenue. But workforce reductions and other efficiency measures have also freed up cash to invest in new products.

With growth from new products now overtaking patent-related sales declines, Sanofi SA declared that it had scaled the patent cliff at the end of September. Total sales, measured in constant exchange rates, were €8,432 million, up by 0.6% from a year earlier.

Ipsen SA, the French pharma company, said that drug sales increased at a slightly faster pace in the third quarter than during the first nine months of the year helped by a recovery of its primary care business.

UCB SA has confirmed that its underlying profitability will improve this year led by a trio of new products that address immune and central nervous system disorders. The company recently won expanded indications for one of these products, Cimzia (certolizumab pegol).

Shire Plc, the Dublin-headquartered specialty pharmaceutical company, reported sharply higher revenue and earnings in the third quarter as the result of a 13% rise in product sales and lower costs following a merger of its three autonomous R&D divisions into one in May.

AstraZeneca Plc has selected a microRNA target from a collaboration with California-based Regulus Therapeutics Inc which will be used to develop a new oncology therapeutic. The target is one of three being investigated under a 2012 collaboration between the two companies.