Genzyme Corp has rejected an unsolicited cash takeover bid from Sanofi-Aventis which values the company at $69 per share or $18.5 billion. The rejection was communicated in a letter to the Sanofi CEO Christopher Viehbacher.
A new company has been set up in the Benelux to discover and develop small molecule drugs for treating bone and joint diseases. It combines assets from TiGenix NV of Belgium and Therosteon BV of the Netherlands.
Cancer Research Technology of the UK has signed an agreement with Bayer Schering Pharma AG to evaluate new leptin antagonist peptides as potential treatments for gynaecological diseases, including cancer.
The Roche Group has announced plans to acquire privately-owned BioImagene Inc of Sunnyvale, California for $100 million in order to bolster its position as a provider of personalised medicines. BioImagene develops digital pathology services.
Building on momentum in the first-half year, SkyePharma Plc said it expects to report an increase in revenue for 2010. Driving the business forward will be the new CEO, Axel Müller, who takes over the top job from Ken Cunningham on 23 August.
Active Biotech AB, a listed Swedish drug development company focused on manipulating the immune system to treat major diseases, said its net loss for the first half of 2010 narrowed to SEK 108.1 million from SEK 118.6 million a year earlier.
Wilex AG has announced the successful completion of a rights issue which has raised €10 million in new money. The proceeds will be used to finance the ongoing clinical development of the company’s oncology portfolio.
Shire Plc has announced a tender offer for the recently-listed Belgian company, Movetis NV, which has a product for chronic constipation on markets in the European Union. Shire is offering €19 per share in cash for Movetis, representing a premium of 74% to Movetis’s closing price on NYSE Euronext Brussels on 2 August 2010.
The antibody business of MorphoSys AG generated a substantial increase in sales and profits for the quarter and half year ended June 2010, giving it an unusual problem of how best to deploy its large cash holdings.
At a time of intense competition in the antibody field, venture capital-backed NovImmune SA of Switzerland has secured an exclusive licensing deal with Genentech Inc for a pre-clinical compound targeting two forms of the Interleukin-17 (IL-17) family of cytokines.