News

New long-term data for the cancer therapy Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) have shown that nearly half of patients treated with the cell-based gene therapy were alive three years after treatment. The long-term data were presented on 7 December at the American Society of Hematology meeting in the US, and are similar to outcome data reported in 2017.

Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA has pledged to invest €350 million over five years to bring a new formulation of inhaler for respiratory diseases to the market with the goal of reducing the carbon footprint of these devices. The company is believed to be the first in the pharmaceutical industry to publicly commit to a lower the carbon footprint for aerosol inhalers. It announced the plan at the United Nations Climate Change Conference on 4 December.

The UK medical charity LifeArc has extended a research collaboration with Metrion Biosciences Ltd with the goal of identifying new compounds for neurological diseases using Metrion’s ion channel drug discovery technology. The year-old collaboration is being extended for a further 12 months.

A French company that is working on antibody therapeutics for cancer indications has raised $53 million (€48 million) in a Series B round in order to take its lead product into the clinic. ImCheck Therapeutics SAS is developing a compound that targets a member of the butyrophilin family of checkpoint molecules and engages gamma delta T cells to fight cancer.

ViGeneron GmbH, a spin-out of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, has closed a Series A funding round enabling it to advance two viral vector-based gene therapy platforms and develop two programmes for ophthalmic indications. The size of the funding was not disclosed. It was led by WuXi AppTec Group and Sequoia Capital of China.

Kiadis Pharma NV has changed course and will in future focus its cell therapy capabilities on the development of natural killer (NK) cell products for the treatment of liquid and solid tumours. The Netherlands-based company acquired a portfolio of NK cell assets with the takeover of CytoSen Therapeutics Inc of the US in April.

Novartis has moved aggressively to expand its cardiovascular portfolio with an agreed bid for The Medicines Company, valued at $9.7 billion. The US company’s lead product, inclisiran, is a small interfering RNA drug for the treatment of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and familial hypercholesterolemia. The Medicines Company expects to make regulatory submissions in the US before the end of 2019 and in Europe in the first quarter of 2020.

The checkpoint antibody Tecentriq (atezolizumab), when combined with Avastin, has shown  statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in overall survival and progression-free survival in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer, Roche announced on 22 November. The Phase 3, 501-patient trial compared the combination therapy with sorafenib, the standard of care for advanced liver cancer.

London-based GHO Capital Partners LLP has closed its second healthcare fund, raising €975 million for investments across Europe – said to be the largest specialist private equity fund dedicated to European healthcare. The fund was oversubscribed, exceeding its target of €800 million, the company announced on 20 November.

The Roche group has staked out fibrotic disease as a growth area with the planned acquisition of Promedior Inc of Lexington, Massachusetts, US for up to $1.39 billion. Promedior has a product for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) poised to enter Phase 3 which has shown an ability to slow the decline of lung function in a randomised Phase 2 study of patients with the disease. The drug, PRM-151, is a recombinant form of the human pentraxin-2 protein, reportedly with a potential to treat a wide range of systemic fibrotic diseases.