A new drug for glaucoma developed by Nicox SA of France and licensed to a unit of Valeant Pharmaceuticals has been rejected by the US Food and Drug Administration because of deficiencies at the company’s Florida manufacturing plant.
Celgene Corp, which only a year ago entered a 10-year collaboration with Juno Therapeutics, has now invested in Jounce Therapeutics Inc which has different technology for stimulating the immune system to fight cancer.
Juno Therapeutics Inc has acquired a Boston, Massachusetts, US biotech company with technology that can potentially disrupt immunosuppressive pathways in the tumour microenvironment of certain cancers. This fits in with its technology for engineering T cells to fight cancer.
An international research consortium that is working on a promising antibody for the treatment of influenza has had its work published in the 14 July edition of the journal Cell. The research suggests that the antibody has the potential for treating influenza caused by numerous type A strains.
Nextech Invest AG, a Zurich, Switzerland-based, oncology fund manager, has closed its fourth fund, Nextech Oncology Fund IV, with an investment of $64 million. The funds were supplied by limited partners based in the US, Europe and Asia.
UK-based Storm Therapeutics Ltd, which is developing small molecules that target RNA-modifying enzymes in cancer, has raised £12 million in Series A equity financing. Two heavy-weight corporate venture capitalists participated in the financing, suggesting interest in the technology.
Roche has confirmed its forecast for a low to mid-single digit growth in sales this year, with a slightly faster increase in earnings per share. The Swiss company also said that its Swiss franc dividend will likely increase for 2016.
Novartis reported a 1.8% decline to $12.47 billion in sales from continuing operations in the second quarter and an 8% drop in operating profit to $2.1 billion.
London, UK-based Tiziana Life Sciences Plc has expanded into genomic medicine with the purchase of a large biobank from Shardna SpA of Italy that has information on 13,000 genealogically linked residents of the Ogliastra region of Sardinia.
Netherlands-based Pharming Group NV has achieved positive results for its protease inhibitor replacement therapy Ruconest for the prevention of hereditary angioedema (HAE), a rare disorder caused by a deficiency of the C1 esterase inhibitor protein.