News

e-Therapeutics Plc aims to identify intervention strategies for the potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease under a new collaboration with the drug discovery company C4X Discovery Holdings Plc.

Crescendo Biologics Ltd has secured $70 million in a Series B financing round to advance its lead product into the clinic for a cancer indication and further develop its pipeline of biologics that are based on a variable domain of the human antibody.

The Wellcome Trust has awarded £4.3 million to PredictImmune of Cambridge UK to finance a clinical trial of the company’s prognostic biomarker test for Crohn’s disease. The assay was developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

Faced with declining sales for its diabetes products, Sanofi SA shifted course in the first quarter to strengthen its specialty pharmaceutical business by acquiring the haemophilia product developer Bioverativ Inc and the antibody company Ablynx NV.

Roche expects to further increase its dividend in 2018 after first-quarter sales grew for the seventh consecutive year, led by new oncology products and Ocrevus for multiple sclerosis. The company is forecasting a low single-digit rise in sales for 2018 at constant exchange rates.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc ended the first quarter with a decline in sales and operating profit and a portfolio that focuses investment in three areas: pharmaceuticals, vaccines and consumer healthcare. The big event of the quarter was the company’s move to take full control of a joint consumer products venture from Novartis.

Shire Plc has secured additional time from the UK competition authority to review a proposed bid from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd that values the Dublin-based company at £46 billion. The parties have until 8 May to reach a decision.

Under the leadership of Vasant Narasimhan, Novartis has reported a rise in sales and operating profit in the first quarter and completed two commercial transactions that will shape the company’s pharmaceutical portfolio in the months to come.

After Shire Plc rejected a cash and stock offer of about $63 billion from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co and Allergan Plc reconsidered its statement that it was considering an offer for Dublin-based company, Shire’s market value settled at around $48.4 billion in trading Friday, reflecting investor’s disbelief that a higher bid might be in the offing

Shire Plc announced on 16 April that it has reached a deal to sell its oncology business to Servier SAS of France for $2.4 billion. The transaction was described by the company as a move to sharpen its focus on its portfolio for drugs treating rare diseases.