Company News

The European Medicines Agency’s CHMP is recommending that Avastin (bevacizumab) be given approval for use in combination with chemotherapy to treat women with recurrent, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer.

Clinigen Group Plc, which services clinical trials and markets an antiviral drug to treat herbes viruses, will be listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market from 25 September - the first pharma IPO on the AIM market in five years.

A research project supported by MRC Technology of the UK and directed at new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, has reached an important threshold with the humanisation of a next-generation antibody binding to amyloid beta.

In what is being described as the largest initiative of its kind, 10 large pharmaceutical companies have announced the setting up a non-profit organisation through which they will collaborate to accelerate and improve clinical research.

CureVac GmbH, developer of a novel messenger RNA vaccine technology, has obtained €80 million in new financing from its principal shareholder, dievini Hopp Biotech Holding, enabling it to advance the clinical development of its lead product – a therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer.

Evotec AG has secured a multi-year contract with the US National Institutes of Health to manage the institute’s small molecule repository, a library of small-molecule compounds. The agreement, which may last for up to 10 years, is valued at €60 million.

London has been selected as one of four new regional innovation centres by Johnson & Johnson Inc which is in the process of reorganising its early-stage life science investments. The other centres will be in the US and China.

Venture-capital backed Immune Targeting Systems Ltd has reported the results of its first clinical test of a new synthetic peptide vaccine for influenza A. It has also announced changes in top management ahead of a new funding round.

UCB SA has signalled its commitment to biologic drugs with the construction of a new manufacturing plant in Belgium that will produce cell culture-based therapeutic proteins. The plant will supply product for UCB research and trials.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc has invested $5.5 million in Response Genetics Inc through a private share placement giving it 15.2% of the expanded share capital of the US diagnostics company. GSK in-licenses genetic testing services from the company.