Finance, Grants, Deals

Nicox SA, which is engaged in ophthalmic product development, has raised €27 million through a share placement with institutional investors in order to finance the marketing of its late stage products.

AbbVie Inc has raised the bar for oncology acquisitions with an agreement to buy Pharmacyclics Inc and its recently approved drug Imbruvica (ibrutinib) for blood cancers for a cash and share offer totaling $21 billion. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies.

A prostate cancer vaccine which has been in development for more than a decade is now the subject of an exclusive option agreement between at Bavarian Nordic A/S of Denmark and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, the total value of which could reach $975 million.

The Nikon Corporation of Japan has made a strategic move into the healthcare sector with plans to acquire Optos Plc of the UK for £259.3 million. Best known as a producer of cameras, Nikon began a strategic review of its operations as film-based cameras started giving way to the new digital technologies.

Belgium-based Cardio3 BioSciences SA has raised €32 million through a private placement of its shares with investors in the US and Europe. The funds will support its cell therapy for the treatment of heart failure as well as recently acquired chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology.

Prexton Therapeutics SA, a 2012 spin-out of Merck Serono, has raised €8.7 million in a Series A financing round to support development of new compounds for the treatment of   central nervous system disorders. The candidate compounds are allosteric modulators.

Shire Plc, whose portfolio is split between treatments for rare diseases and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, has acquired Meritage Pharma Inc and its late-stage product for eosinophilic esophagitis, an inflammatory disorder of the esophagus.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company is to spend up to $1.25 billion to acquire Flexus Biosciences Inc and specifically, a preclinical small molecule compound and discovery programme, both directed at oncology indications. The assets complement BMS’s own immunotherapy products.

Merck & Co Inc is to partner with NGM Biopharmaceuticals Inc to build its capabilities in the area of therapies for metabolic diseases. The collaboration covers several preclinical candidate drugs including one for diabetes, obesity and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

Innate Pharma SA made further progress in 2014 in developing antibodies that enable the innate immune system to kill cancer but the cost of clinical development pushed its losses sharply higher.