News

MorphoSys acquires Lanthio Pharma

Country
Germany

MorphoSys AG has acquired Lanthio Pharma BV of the Netherlands, a company with technology that can be used to identify peptides which are selective for a specific disease target and stabilise them for receptor binding.

Juno teams up with Fate

Country
United States

Juno Therapeutics Inc, which has technology for genetically engineering T cells, has teamed up with Fate Therapeutics Inc to find out whether there is a role for small molecules in improving the profile of engineered T cells as therapies. The four-year collaboration takes T cell immunotherapy one step further by potentially introducing new modulators into the mix of technologies that are now being investigated globally for a wide range of cancers. The collaboration was announced on 6 May.

GSK profit declines as strategy shifts

Country
United Kingdom

GlaxoSmithKline Plc reported sales of £5.6 billion for the first quarter, unchanged from a year earlier, and an operating profit of £1.3 billion, down by 15% as the group rebalanced its business with a greater focus on consumer healthcare.

Kymab completes Series B funding

Country
United Kingdom

Kymab Ltd of Cambridge UK has raised an additional $50 million in a Series B financing round bringing the total raised to $90 million. The new funds were provided by Woodford Patient Capital Trust Plc and Malin Corporation Plc, which itself recently raised €330 million in an initial public offering on the Irish Stock Exchange.

Bavarian Nordic Q1 sales down but guidance maintained

Country
Denmark

Bavarian Nordic A/S reported a 17.9% decline in revenue for the first 2015 quarter to DKK 234.8 million (€31.5 million) and a loss before interest and taxes of DKK 40.2 million compared with a year-earlier profit of DKK 3.4 million.

Lundbeck names new CEO

Country
Denmark

H. Lundbeck A/S has named Kåre Schultz, a Danish national, as its new president and chief executive officer, effective 20 May. Mr Schultz was most recently president and chief operating officer at Novo Nordisk A/S but left the company following a reorganisation of the executive management team.

GW Pharma raises $179.2 million in US

Country
United Kingdom

GW Pharmaceuticals Plc, a developer of cannabinoid medicines, has raised $179.2 million through a share offering on the Nasdaq exchange, the company’s third follow-on financing following an initial public offering of its shares in the US in May 2013.

MorphoSys reports large first quarter gains

Country
Germany

MorphosSys AG reported sharply higher first-quarter revenue and earnings following the one-time payment and recognition of deferred income from a since-terminated partnership with Celgene Corp. The partnership was for the development of an antibody targeting CD38 in multiple myeloma.

Affimed plans follow-on financing on Nasdaq

Country
Germany

Affimed Therapeutics AG of Germany is planning a follow-on financing of $35 million on Nasdaq to support development of its portfolio of bispecific antibodies. In September 2014 the company raised $56 million in an initial public offering of its shares.

Labco schedules €320 million IPO

Country
France

Labco, a French diagnostics company with 160 laboratories spread over seven countries, is making an initial public offering on its shares on the Euronext Paris stock exchange and a simultaneous secondary offering.