News

Novartis has announced plans to reduce its workforce in Switzerland and the UK by a net 2,100 over four years as it shifts away from the production of high volume pharmaceutical products to personalised medicines such as gene therapies. The shift represents a focus on higher-value specialised products.

Among the activities that will be curtailed is the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients at a plant in the UK. Novartis plans to divest or close the manufacturing site in Grimsby which currently employs just under 400 people.

The checkpoint protein on immune cells may have another role to play in treating disease besides fighting cancer. This is the proposition being put forward by Altheia Science Srl, a new Italian biotech which is building a pipeline of agents to modulate programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

Nightstar Therapeutics Plc has reported positive Phase 1/2 data from a trial of its gene therapy for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, a rare inherited retinal disorder primarily affecting males. The 18-patient study showed preliminary evidence of improved visual function.

A study published in the journal Science on 7 September 2018 gives new insights into how exercise can improve memory and possibly help prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease. The corollary is that pharmaceutical treatments might be designed to mimic this effect.

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.

The Danish company will also increase investment in digital technologies and artificial intelligence to help identify lead molecules and develop them faster. As a consequence, the size of company’s R&D workforce will be reduced with the loss of about 400 jobs in Denmark and China.

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.

Would-be biotechs will be able to raise €1 million to €10 million with a prospectus and for amounts smaller than €1 million a prospectus will not be needed.

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.