IDEA AG, a privately held German biopharmaceutical company, has licensed its non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug and delivery product, Diractin, to Alpharma Ireland Ltd, an affiliate of Alpharma Inc., a US specialty pharmaceutical company.
DSM Venturing BV, the venture capital arm of Royal DSM NV of the Netherlands, has made a €2 million equity investment in Jurilab Oy, in what Jurilab’s chief executive, Kari Paukkeri, describes as a “strategic alignment.”
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) has disclosed that it will make more than €400 million available for grants to the life sciences in 2008, representing an increase of €46 million or 13% from its budget for 2007.
Vivalis, a French company that has developed a stem cell technology for the manufacture of vaccines, has made an initial public offering of shares on the mid-cap section of the Euronext Paris stock exchange, worth about €46.4 million.
Silence Therapeutics Plc, which specialises in the technology of RNA-mediated interference for the treatment of disease, has begun a three-year research and development collaboration with AstraZeneca Plc valued at up to £200 million.
Zeta Biotech, which specialises in products for the separation of molecules through the use of gel electrophoresis, is raising about €1 million with an initial public offering of 206,065 shares on the Euronext’s Marché Libré in Paris.
The Wellcome Trust, Britain’s biggest medical charity, has allocated £79 million from 2007 to 2010 for seed projects that commercial investors would not ordinarily touch.
Shire Plc has agreed to pay up to $825 million for an experimental drug for the prevention and reduction of scarring in connection with surgery. The licensing agreement, with Renovo Group Plc, would give Shire exclusive rights to market the drug, called Juvista, in every country except the member states of the European Union.
There are a growing number of instances where charitable organisations can provide money to profit-making companies and still demonstrate that they are working in the public interest, according Richard Seabrook, head of business development at the Wellcome Trust.
Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics AMT Holding NV, which develops gene-based therapies for orphan diseases, raised €50 million in an initial public offering on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange.