Company News

TopoTarget A/S, the Danish company focused on cancer treatments, has partnered its lead compound, belinostat, for $30 million upfront, potential fees of $320 million plus double digit royalties on sales.

Galápagos NV expects to achieve an operating profit in 2010 on the back of an anticipated 20% increase in revenue to more than €120 million. The Belgium-based company issued the forecast on 29 January 2010 with the release of its unaudited results for 2009.

Ark Therapeutics Group Plc plans to reduce its staff while it appeals against a negative opinion from the European Medicines Agency for its lead gene therapy. It is also putting a hold on a Phase 3 trial for Vitor, a treatment for cancer-related muscle wasting. 

AstraZeneca is reducing the size of its research and development operations in an effort to make it more flexible and productive. It is also reducing costs in other areas to adjust for loss of revenue resulting from patent expirations.

Novartis International AG has raised its dividend by 5% after reporting an 8% increase in net income to $10.3 billion in 2009 on sales of $44.3 billion. The company also announced that Joe Jimenez will take over as CEO from 1 February 2010.

A private equity group with offices in London and Guernsey is providing £5 million over three years to a UK company pursuing a new concept in biologic development.

Oral formulations of two investigational drugs for multiple sclerosis have been shown to be effective in reducing the rate of disease relapse, according to three papers in the New England Journal of Medicine. The drugs are oral fingolimod and oral cladribine.

Evotec AG has reinforced its position in drug discovery with a new agreement to identify potential treatments for Huntington’s disease. The agreement comes at a time when the Germany-based company is narrowing its strategic focus after setbacks more than a year ago with two clinical-stage products

GlaxoSmithKline is to make 13,500 potential malaria compounds freely available to researchers from around the world in a bid to stimulate work on medicines for the developing world. It is also allocating $8 million to a new research foundation.

The privately-held Danish diagnostics company, Dako Denmark A/S, has signed a deal with AstraZeneca to develop companion diagnostic tests for a number of AstraZeneca’s oncology projects. Financial details were not disclosed.