Company News

Sygnis AG of Germany has raised gross proceeds of €2.7 million from a rights offering and private placement to support its growth as a service provider of DNA amplification and sequencing products.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has given positive opinions to  a new drug for depression developed by H. Lundbeck A/S, and one for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) by Actelion Ltd. The decisions were announced on 25 October.

 A group of venture capitalists is providing €9.4 million to a new company that will hold exclusive licences to oncology assets originated by F-Star Biotechnology Ltd, a  discoverer of bispecific antibodies. The Series A round is supported by Atlas Venture.

The European Medicines Agency’s main scientific committee has recommended that patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection before or after a liver transplantation be given the opportunity to be treated with the experimental drug sofosbuvir.

MorphoSys AG has revised upward its profit forecast for 2013 in light of stronger than anticipated revenue, and lower than expected costs for the development of a therapeutic antibody for cancer which is partnered with Celgene Inc.

An advisory panel of the US Food and Drug Administration has unanimously recommended approval of the Johnson & Johnson/Medivir AB treatment for patients infected with hepatitis C virus, simeprevir, in combination with interferon and ribavirin.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc reported a 1% increase in turnover for the 2013 third quarter to £6.5 billion at constant exchange rates. Operating profit advanced by 1% in reported terms but on a core basis it was up by 11% to £2.1 billion.

Diversification helped the Swiss healthcare company, Novartis International AG, post a 3.8% increase in sales for the third quarter to $14.34 billion. For the first nine months revenue rose by 2.4% to $42.84 billion.

Anergis SA of Switzerland has provided further data on its lead vaccine for birch pollen allergy which showed that the treatment increased allergen-specific antibody levels by a factor of 20, indicating an immunological response.

Evotec AG has entered into an agreement with AstraZeneca Plc to explore compounds and targets for the treatment of chronic kidney disease. The agreement involves an undisclosed upfront payment as well as performance-related milestone payments.