Merck Serono is set to pay Ablynx NV €20 million upfront as part of a new agreement to co-discover and co-develop antibody-derived therapeutic proteins against two targets in osteoarthritis. This is an expansion of an existing partnership.
Oxford BioMedica Plc has entered into a research and development collaboration with the Mayo Clinic in the US to develop a gene therapy for the treatment of chronic glaucoma. It is the company’s second partnership in the area of eye disease.
Bavarian Nordic A/S has announced receipt of a $25 million milestone payment from the US government in connection with the scaling up of production of its smallpox vaccine, Imvamune, for delivery to the US national strategic stockpile.
Curetis AG of Germany has raised €9.6 million in additional Series A funding in order to support the development and registration of its molecular diagnostic technologies for the detection of infectious disease.
Prosensa BV is set to receive a credit of up to €5 million from the Dutch government, payable on the achievement of milestones, to support the development of preclinical compounds for Myotonic Dystrophy type 1 using RNA modulation technology.
Silence Therapeutics Plc has entered into an agreement with Mirna Therapeutics Inc of Austin, Texas to apply its delivery technologies to the US company’s candidate microRNA-based therapeutics for cancer. Financial details weren’t disclosed.
Syntaxin Ltd, which is a 2005 spin-out of the UK Health Protection Agency, has entered into an agreement with Ipsen SA of France to discover and develop therapies in the field of botulinum toxins in a deal potentially valued at more than $100 million.
The Roche group has reached an agreement to acquire Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc for $230 million in order to expand its franchise in treatments for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. Anadys is located in San Diego, California.
Affiris AG of Austria has received $1.5 million from the Michael J. Fox Foundation in the US to start a Phase 1 study of a new vaccine for Parkinson’s disease. The therapeutic vaccine candidate targets the protein, alpha-synuclein.
Vernalis Plc said it set to receive €0.5 million from the privately-owned French pharmaceutical company, Servier, following the achievement of a research milestone in the companies’ oncology drug discovery collaboration.