GlaxoSmithKline Plc has raised its stake to 19% from about 12% in Theravance Inc, a US biopharmaceutical company with whom it has a collaboration in respiratory medicines. The transaction is valued at $129 million.
Zealand Pharma A/S of Denmark has made an initial public offering of its shares on the Nasdaq OMX exchange in Copenhagen, one of the very few European biotechnology companies to seek a public listing in more than a year.
Advent Venture Partners LLP has raised £75 million for a new fund devoted exclusively to life science investments. The fund will invest primarily in early and mid-stage companies in the UK, Europe and the US.
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has signed a collaboration and licensing agreement with the Vienna-based F-Star Biotechnologische Forschungs-und Entwicklungsges to jointly discover new antibody-derived therapies.
The UK speciality pharmaceutical company, BTG Plc, has announced an agreed bid to acquire Biocompatibles International Plc, which produces drug-eluting bead products, for a combined cash and share bid valued at £177.2 million.
Wilex AG has announced the acquisition of certain diagnostics assets from Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics which trade under the name, Oncogene Science. The assets include marketable diagnostic kits and laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ablynx NV of Belgium is set to receive €3 million in milestone payments from Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH - its fifth such payment under a three-year old antibody research alliance with the German company. Payments now amount to €15 million.
A spin-out from Leicester University in the UK has received institutional and venture capital funding to develop a haemostat, a product that stops bleeding. The project is being supported by the Wellcome Trust.
Sanofi-Aventis SA has warned the management of Genzyme Corp that its shareholders’ interests could be put in jeopardy if certain defensive measures are put in place to stop Sanofi-Aventis’s bid for the company.
Privately-owned Biocartis SA of Switzerland and bioMerieux of France have entered into a strategic collaboration to co-develop assays for use in a number of healthcare-associated infections, sepsis and oncology.