News

Novartis International AG is expanding its franchise in immunotherapy with a major collaboration with Aduro Biotech Inc of California aimed at developing new therapies for  cancer.

Redx Pharma Plc, which specialises in developing analogues of existing pharmaceuticals, has raised £15 million in an initial public offering on the AIM market in London in order to strengthen its pipeline of oncology and infectious disease assets.

The cohort of companies developing products for treating cancer with genetically engineered T-cells has increased with the announcement that Merck Serono and Intrexon Corp will collaborate to generate new drug candidates using the technology.

MorphoSys has regained rights from Celgene Corp to an experimental antibody for patients with multiple myeloma following the termination of a co-development and co-promotion agreement between the two companies.

France’s OSE Pharma SA, which is developing immunotherapies for cancer, has raised €21.1 million with an initial public offering of its shares on the Euronext stock exchange in Paris. The managers said the IPO was 3.6 times oversubscribed.

Rigontec GmbH, which is developing RNA-based immunotherapeutics for cancer and viral diseases, has reopened its Series A financing to include the new investors Forbion Capital Partners of the Netherlands and Sunstone Capital A/S of Denmark. Each invested €2.4 million.

Research by Douglas Melton of Harvard University and colleagues showing that insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells can be created in a laboratory has reached the stage of commercialisation with the launch of a new company aimed at bringing a cell therapy for diabetes into human trials.

A large impairment charge for a failed diabetes trial pushed Evotec AG into a loss for 2014 in what was otherwise a year of higher revenue and expanding business opportunities. Impairment charges of €8.5 million gave rise to an operating loss of €6.4 million for the year and a net loss of €7 million.

SkyePharma will more than double is net investment in research and development this year with plans to advance the clinical development of a new treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as well as new drug delivery technologies.

Essex Woodlands, one of the world’s largest investors in pharmaceuticals and healthcare services, has teamed up with the serial entrepreneur Bryan Morton to launch a new UK-based speciality pharmaceutical business with a portfolio of marketed products that generated $27 million in sales in 2014.