News

The European Medicines Agency has given a positive opinion to a new immune-stimulating therapy for multiple myeloma using an accelerated procedure that is reserved for medicines addressing a major public health need.

Sanofi SA reported a 9% increase in net sales to €34.5 billion for 2015 but its operating income slid by 7.3% to €5.6 billion because of a rise in all major expenses. The net sales figure excludes revenue from animal health products, which are set to be sold to Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH.

Imperial Innovations Group Plc has led a £5 million Series A funding round for the Cambridge University spin-out Aqdot Ltd, a specialist chemical company that has developed a chemical encapsulation technology for use in consumer products.

Greatbatch Inc and Aleva Neurotherapeutics SA of Switzerland are to collaborate on a new device for deep brain stimulation (DBS) for treating Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Simultaneously the US company is to lead a Series C financing round for Aleva.

Ever since the collapse of British Biotech more than a decade ago, the UK life science sector has been in the doldrums. However, the mood has shifted in the past 18 months as money has started to flow back into the sector.

Index Ventures, which started as a small Swiss venture capital company in 1996 with a pilot fund of $17 million and grew into a global growth investor with nearly $6 billion under management, is splitting off its life science business from the rest of the company into an independent organisation that has been incorporated as Medicxi Ventures (UK) LLP.

Novo Nordisk A/S had a banner year in 2015 with a double-digit increase in revenue and a rise in operating income that was above the company’s own long-term target. However, a slower rate of growth is anticipated for 2016.

Enyo Pharma SAS of France has secured €22 million in a Series A funding round to accelerate development of its lead treatment for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection which targets interactions in the cell that enable the virus to replicate.

AstraZeneca Plc expects to see a decline in both revenue and earnings per share this year as the statin Crestor loses exclusivity in the US making way for the market entry of lower priced generic products. Partially offsetting this will be revenue from new products and tight cost controls.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc expects its core earnings to return to growth in 2016 on the back of sales of new products, costs savings and the completion of an asset swap with Novartis which has left it with a large vaccine business and majority control of a new joint venture consumer products company.