Galápagos NV has reached its first milestones in a research alliance with an affiliate of Merck & Co ahead of schedule triggering payments of €3.6 million. Together with upfront fees of €4 million, total payments to the Belgian company are €7.6 million.
Actelion Ltd of Switzerland has received the support of an advisory committee of the US Food and Drug Administration to expand the use of its drug for Gaucher disease to include Niemann-Pick disease.
Galápagos NV has entered into an alliance with Roche to develop potential therapies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Galápagos has received €6 million upfront and said potential milestone payments could exceed €400 million.
Proximagen Neuroscience Plc, a university spin-out that raised £50 million in an offer of its shares in 2009, is making an agreed, all-cash offer for Minster Pharmaceuticals Plc. Both companies are developing CNS drug candidates.
The Vienna based F-Star Biotechnologische Forschungs-und Entwicklungsges has raised €8 million in a Series A financing round to support its technology platform for discovering and developing antibodies.
The Danish antibody developer, Affitech A/S, has negotiated a bridging loan of DKK 9.33 million (€1.25 million) to cover its needs while it negotiates a larger financing during the first quarter. The loan has been extended by three existing investors.
BioInvent International AB of Sweden has started a Phase 1 study in the US of its monoclonal antibody, BI-505, in patients with advanced multiple myeloma. The drug has been granted orphan status by both the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency. Patients in the trial will be treated with intravenous doses of the drug every other week for a 28-day period with the possibility of extending the treatment until the condition deteriorates again. BI-505 binds to the adhesion protein, ICAM-1, which is over-expressed in several tumours but is not usually expressed in normal tissue. It is being developed to treat multiple myelomas that express this protein. Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells.
The newly merged Swiss company, Evolva Holding SA, has signed a deal with the Roche group to discover compounds with activity on targets in oncology and anti-infectives. The financial terms were not disclosed.
A bioinformatics company with a focus on biomarker discovery has received seed funding from two UK venture funds in order to carry out its work identifying markers suitable for helping investigators select patients for clinical trials.
The value to Big Pharma of novel antibiotics has been underscored by AstraZeneca’s decision to acquire Novexel SA of France for a total cash consideration of up to $505 million. Novexel currently has two anti-infectives in Phase 2 development.