Company News

Zealand Pharma A/S of Denmark has made an initial public offering of its shares on the Nasdaq OMX exchange in Copenhagen, one of the very few European biotechnology companies to seek a public listing in more than a year.

Advent Venture Partners LLP has raised £75 million for a new fund devoted exclusively to life science investments. The fund will invest primarily in early and mid-stage companies in the UK, Europe and the US.

Clavis Pharma ASA has a strategy for improving the performance of marketed cancer drugs that takes it into the realm of personalised medicine. This strategy is to apply a lipid vector technology to marketed drugs to improve their delivery to cancer cells. A companion diagnostic would then identify the patients for whom these drugs are likely to be most effective.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has signed a collaboration and licensing agreement with the Vienna-based F-Star Biotechnologische Forschungs-und Entwicklungsges to jointly discover new antibody-derived therapies.

Paion AG has published headline data from a Phase 2b clinical trial of its short-acting sedative remimazolam which, it says, showed the drug performed better than the standard of care, midazolam, in patients undergoing colonoscopy.

At the request of the US Food and Drug Administration, Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc has withdrawn the opioid, propoxyphene, from the US market. The drug trades under the names, Darvon and Darvocet.

The Roche Group plans to discontinue research and early development of potential RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics as part of a portfolio review designed to reduce costs. Its partner, Alnylam, said the decision wouldn’t impact its future plans.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved denosumab (Xgeva: Amgen Inc) to help prevent skeletal-related events in patients with bone metastases from solid tumours. The antibody is a RANK ligand inhibitor.

The UK speciality pharmaceutical company, BTG Plc, has announced an agreed bid to acquire Biocompatibles International Plc, which produces drug-eluting bead products, for a combined cash and share bid valued at £177.2 million.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Halaven (eribulin mesylate) to treat patients with metastatic breast cancer who have received at least two prior chemotherapy regimens for late-stage disease. The developer is Eisai Inc.