Heptares Therapeutics Ltd has generated a stabilised form of a GPCR target under a research collaboration with Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc enabling the start of a drug discovery programme. Cubist works in acute care and is developing antibiotics.
TiGenix NV has raised €6.5 million in a private placement of its shares to finance the continued roll-out of its cell therapy for knee injuries ChondroCelect. A total of 26 million new shares were placed via an accelerated bookbuilding procedure.
Novartis expects to see sales grow by a low-single digit figure this year, an upward revision from its forecast in April for a flat turnover. This is largely due to a delay in generic competition in the US for its high blood pressure drug Diovan (valsartan).
GlaxoSmithKline Plc said that it is cooperating fully with the Chinese authorities to investigate allegations of fraudulent behaviour and ethical misconduct by certain individuals in the company, and third-party agencies and will take action required by the outcome of the investigation.
BTG Plc expects revenue in the financial year that began on 1 April to be in the range of £235 million to £245 million, excluding the impact of recent acquisitions. In the most recent financial year revenue was £233.7 million.
Simon Lowth, the AstraZeneca Plc chief financial officer and interim chief executive until 1 October 2012, is leaving the company at the end of October this year to become CFO of the BG Group Plc, the gas exploration and production company.
The French specialty pharmaceutical company Ipsen SA has reached an agreement to acquire Syntaxin Ltd of the UK in a deal potentially valued at €158 million, while simultaneously announcing an agreement in neurology with Harvard Medical School.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Boehringer Ingelheim’s Gilotrif (afatinib) for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose tumours express specific epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations.
Roche has stopped a Phase 3 trial of aleglitazar for patients with Type 2 diabetes who are at risk of cardiovascular disease because of adverse events and a lack of efficacy. This follows a review by an independent data and safety monitoring board.
AstraZeneca Plc’s previously-announced plans to build its oncology portfolio has taken shape with the announcement of three projects: a review of technology to monitor tumour activity and work on therapies for prostate and pancreatic cancers.