Finance, Grants, Deals

Elan Corporation Plc has started to reap the benefits of a multi-year reorganisation which has transformed it from a diversified, but indebted enterprise into a leaner company specializing in neurology.

Pharming Group NV of the Netherlands has raised €3.2 million in a private placement of its shares with US specialist investors, extending its cash runway into the second quarter of 2012. The company’s lead product is a treatment for angioedema.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company has announced plans to acquire privately-held Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc of San Diego, California, paying $325 million upfront, in order to expand its portfolio into potential treatments for fibrotic diseases.

Actelion Ltd reported a decline in revenue and a loss for the first six months of 2011 as the result of a damages award and a 12% decline in the Swiss franc value of dollar sales over the period.

Consort Medical Plc, a London Stock-Exchange listed medical device company, is leading a consortium of institutional investors who are committing up to £16.9 million over three years to a UK company with a point-of-care diagnostics platform.

The Roche group has agreed to pay €130 million upfront to acquire 100% of a Heidelberg-based company which is developing in vitro diagnostics for the early detection and diagnosis of cervical cancer. The company is Mtm Laboratories AG.

Amgen Inc is set to pay Micromet Inc €10 million upfront as part of a collaboration to research the company’s bi-specific antibody technology against three undisclosed solid tumour targets. Micromet is based in the US but  has a research facility in Germany.

A French developer of an artificial heart for patients with heart failure, has announced plans to raise additional capital through a rights issue with preferential rights for existing shareholders. Proceeds will support clinical development of the device.

In a deal that underscores growing interest in cancer immunotherapy, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS) has agreed to pay $35 million upfront for rights to an early-stage monoclonal antibody that targets receptors on cells of the innate immune system. The developer of the antibody is Innate Pharma SA of Marseilles, France.

Venture-capital-backed Vantia Ltd has raised £4 million in a Series B round to support the clinical development of two candidate small molecule drugs for the treatment of dysmenorrhoea and for nocturia.