Company News

The Roche Group said that sales of its pharmaceuticals and diagnostics in 2009 should grow ‘well ahead’ of the market for these products, continuing a trend seen in the first half of the year.

Galápagos NV said that it has reached a milestone in its collaboration with Eli Lilly to develop new medicines for osteoporosis triggering a payment of €2.5 million.  This brings total payments to it from the collaboration to €3.9 million.

New products contributed £377 million to total sales at GlaxoSmithKline in the 2009 second quarter, up by 42% from the first quarter. Included in this category were two vaccines, Rotarix for gastro-enteritis, and Cervarix for cervical cancer, which produced combined sales of £144 million.

Elan Corporation Plc expects to see revenue grow by double-digit figures in 2009 after a strong first half during which its biopharmaceutical revenues, including sales of the multiple sclerosis drug, Tysabri, rose by 21.4%.

The Pharming Group NV has confirmed plans to submit a new marketing authorisation application for its lead drug, Rhucin, to the European Medicines Agency in September 2009 and thereafter, to the US Food and Drug Administration.

Novartis AG reported net income of $4 billion at the 2009 first half and confirmed its forecast for a “strong operational performance” for the year as a whole. The company also said its cancer therapy, Afinitor, should be approved in the EU soon.

BTG Plc said that it is moving ahead with plans to set up a US hospital sales force to sell two emergency-care products acquired at the time of its takeover of Protherics Plc in 2008. It is also looking for in-licensing opportunities.

Wilex AG said that its portfolio of cancer products should reach some important thresholds in 2009. One likely threshold would be the start of a first-in-man trial of a kinase inhibitor which would result in a milestone payment from UCB Pharma SA.

MorphoSys AG said that it has received a commitment from Novartis to complete a ten-year alliance which aims to discover and develop antibodies against several molecular targets in a wide range of diseases.

Sanofi-aventis has become the latest multinational pharmaceutical company to decentralise its research and development business in order to generate more ideas for new drugs from contact with scientists and entrepreneurs outside the company.