News

The European Medicines Agency has delivered a positive opinion recommending use of a new gene therapy, Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec), to treat adults and children suffering from an inherited retinal dystrophy caused by mutations in the RPE65 gene.

The disease causes vision loss that usually leads to blindness. There is currently no treatment for the disorder. Support to patients is limited to measures allowing disease management such as wearing a medical identification bracelet.

Abzena Plc is to apply its antibody technology to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell development under a new agreement with Tmunity Therapeutics Inc, a company co-founded by Carl June, head of the scientific team that discovered Kymriah.

Novo Nordisk A/S is reorganising its research organisation to accelerate the development of novel therapies for serious chronic diseases. The move represents a shift away from traditional insulin products and into, among other things, cardio-metabolic and stem cell research.

Research carried out by scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany suggests that colon cancer is stimulated by cell stress and bacteria and not by inflammation, as previously thought.

Two German networking organisations have announced plans for helping nascent biotechnology and medical device companies start operations in Europe by obtaining crowdfunding, which involves raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.

An international investment group led by Life Sciences Partners (LSP) of the Netherlands has provided $45 million in Series D financing to the digital health company Endotronix Inc to commercialise its system for helping physicians treat patients with heart failure from home.

The product platform consists of a remote monitoring system coupled with an implantable pulmonary artery sensor that enables physicians to monitor their patients and detect any worsening of a heart failure.

The Swiss medical device company Luciole Medical AG has raised CHF 5.3 million (€4.7 million) in a Series A financing round to commercialise a minimally-invasive monitoring probe designed to measure blood oxygen levels in the brain, specifically for patients in intensive care.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Lumoxiti (moxetumomab pasudotox-tdfk), a new drug developed by AstraZeneca Plc for the treatment of refractory hairy cell leukaemia (HCL), a rare, slow-growing cancer of the blood.

Sanofi SA has continued its ongoing reorganisation under Chief Executive Olivier Brandicourt with a reconfiguration of two of its global business units. The current units include products for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other legacy products. They will be altered to reflect the company’s geographical priorities.

A new primary care business unit will combine the product portfolios of Sanofi’s current diabetes, cardiovascular and mature products divisions to focus exclusively on mature markets.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has exercised an option to acquire Austria-based ViraTherapeutics GmbH which is developing oncolytic virus vaccines to treat cancer. The transaction has been valued at €210 million.