News

Shire Plc posted a 3.7% gain in revenue to $1.56 billion in the second 2015 quarter but hefty impairment charges brought a 60.8% decline in operating income to $132.6 million.

Despite reporting weaker revenue and a decline in operating profit for the second quarter, Novartis has maintained its forecast for growth for the year as a whole, on the strength of an improved performance of its Sandoz generics subsidiary.

Five months after appointing a new chief executive, Sanofi SA has announced a major reorganisation of its global business that highlights the company’s portfolio of medicines for rare diseases, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Immunocore Ltd of Oxford UK has raised $320 million (£205 million) in a private financing round to support development of its pipeline of bispecific biologic drugs for the treatment of cancer and viral infections.

Proposed legislation that would increase funding for US biomedical research and promote personalised medicine passed the House of Representatives on 10 July and was sent to the Senate for debate.

Following a request from Denmark, the European Medicines Agency has begun a review of the safety of the human papillomavirus vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix to find out whether or not reports of two rare adverse events are linked to the vaccines.

ReNeuron Plc has outlined a three-year plan for the development of its stem-cell therapy portfolio that would, if successful, lead to regulatory applications for products in both stroke and retinitis pigmentosa. To support this development, it is proposing to raise £68.4 million in a share placement.

Autifony Therapeutics Ltd has obtained an additional £8 million in funding to expand the potential for its potassium channel modulator technology beyond hearing disorders, to schizophrenia and other indications.

A France-based microbiome company has raised €2 million in a Series A financing to develop two new compounds with the potential for targeting bacteria that are resistant to current antibiotics. Seventure Partners is providing the capital to Eligo Bioscience SAS.

Premaitha Health Plc, which has a prenatal test for assessing the risk of Down’s syndrome and other genetic defects, has raised £8 million from a placement of new shares on the AIM section of the London Stock Exchange.