Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd has completed its €9.6 billion acquisition of privately-owned Nycomed A/S of Switzerland giving it cash flow from Nycomed’s €2.8 billion in annual sales as well as a recently launched product for COPD.
Silence Therapeutics Plc has entered a second collaboration in under a month, this time with an unidentified pharmaceutical company to exploit Silence’s RNAi delivery technology. The follows an earlier agreement with a Dutch company in therapeutics.
H. Lundbeck A/S has decided to invest £10.3 million in Proximagen Group Plc of the UK in the second alignment of companies involved in the CNS research space this week. The first was Biotie Therapies Corp’s announcement on 27 September of plans to acquire Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA.
Sanofi has raised $1 billion with a three-year note issue priced to yield 1.242% semi-annually or 83 basis points over the comparable U.S treasury issue.
Hypha Discovery Ltd of the UK has entered into a discovery collaboration with Ferrer Grupo of Spain to identify new low-molecular weight natural products that could be used to treat microbial infections. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The pace of consolidation within the European biotech sector quickened on 27 September as Biotie Therapies Corp of Finland announced plans to acquire Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA of Italy for €45 million, creating a group with two late-stage assets in neurology.
Corporate venture capitalists increasingly are looking for early biotech investment opportunities that will support the strategic objectives of their parent companies. And they are reserving funds to support these companies until the assets in question mature. This was one conclusion from a panel discussion among venture capitalists that took place at the Sachs Investor Forum in Zurich, Switzerland on 13 September 2011.
Silence Therapeutics Plc stoutly defended the virtues of RNA interference in presenting its first half-year results and announcing the completion of its management reorganization and downsizing.
Vernalis Plc said it has achieved a research milestone in its drug discovery collaboration with H. Lundbeck A/S, triggering a payment of £0.3 million. The UK company is identifying candidate compounds targeting the kinase, LRRK2.
Merck Serono has taken steps to expand its franchise in multiple sclerosis by acquiring exclusive rights to an experimental drug described as a second-generation peptide copolymer. Teva Pharmaceuticals’ Copaxone is also a peptide copolymer.