Novartis reported a 3% rise in net sales to $12.8 billion for the third quarter of 2018, but operating profit dropped by 18% to $1.9 billion following the company’s voluntary withdrawal from the market of a surgical stent for glaucoma patients after a post-marketing study showed damage to patients’ eyes five years after treatment.
The Roche group reported sales of CHF 42.1 billion ($42.5 billion) for the first nine months of 2018, up by 7% from a year earlier led by strong demand in the US for its cancer medicines and a new multiple sclerosis drug. The Switzerland-based company does not provide earnings figures for the third quarter.
Nevertheless it is forecasting a further increase in its dividend in Swiss francs for the year. In 2017, the company paid a dividend of CHF 8.30 per share.
A new gene therapy company that uses chemogenetics-based technology has been launched in the US with plans to develop a product aimed at managing chronic neuropathic pain. CODA Biotherapeutics Inc is based in South San Francisco, California and made its debut on 12 September with a $19 million in Series A financing.
Austria-based Themis Bioscience GmbH has entered into a licencing agreement with Max-Planck-Innovation GmbH, the technology transfer arm of the Max Planck Society of Germany, for exclusive rights to an oncolytic measles virus platform that could be used to develop new oncology drugs.
The technology was jointly developed by Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The European Medicines Agency has issued new guidance to industry on Brexit, warning that all products under review by the UK regulatory authority will need to be transferred to rapporteurs or co-rapporteurs from the other EU member states. The rapporteur is the leader of the scientific team that evaluates applications from companies for marketing authorisations. The activities of this team are supported by the EMA secretariat. Once outside the EU, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will no longer be eligible to participate in these evaluations.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved Libtayo (cemiplimab-rwlc) on 28 September for the treatment of patients with metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) who are not eligible for curative surgery or radiation. The approval is the FDA’s first authorisation of a drug specifically for an advanced form of this disease.
The field of RNA therapeutics received a boost on 10 October when a group of investors provided Series A funding to Gotham Therapeutics Inc, a company founded by Versant Ventures to develop drugs that target RNA-modifying proteins. The new company will be exploiting discoveries in the field of epitranscriptomics, a discipline which describes the biochemical modifications of RNA within a cell. These modifications help determine the degree to which genes are translated into proteins.
GW Pharmaceuticals Plc has raised $300 million in a secondary offering on the US Nasdaq, providing it with capital to commercialise its recently approved cannabinoid medicine Epidiolex for the treatment of seizures associated with the childhood epilepsies, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.
Epidiolex was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration on 25 June. The medicine is currently under review at the European Medicines Agency with a decision expected in the first quarter of 2019.
Two scientists who identified proteins which act as a break on the immune system have been awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery, which is the scientific basis for the ‘immune checkpoint’ class of medicines. James P. Allison, who discovered CTLA-4, and Tasuku Honjo, who discovered PD-1, were cited by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet for their landmark work in the global fight against cancer. Both proteins can prevent the immune system from recognising cancer cells.
Forbion Capital Partners of the Netherlands has closed its previously-announced Forbion IV biopharma fund at €360 million, significantly above the original target of €250 million. Forbion IV, like its predecessor fund Forbion III, will primarily invest in life science opportunities in the EU, including the UK, with the remainder targeting North America.