News

Nextech Invest Ltd said that it has raised $40 million in the first closing of its fourth oncology fund but that its target for the final closing remains at $100 million.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first combination pill to treat chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infection. Harvoni (ledipasvir and sofosbuvir) is also the first treatment that doesn’t require co-administration with interferon or ribaviron.

In a major expansion of an existing gene-therapy deal, Oxford BioMedica Plc has reached an agreement with Novartis to supply it with greater quantities of lentiviral vector that can be used to gene

A new company which is investigating treatments for conditions ranging from cancer to reperfusion injury has been launched in the UK with £15.5 million in seed capital. The company, Magnus Life Science, is a collaboration with University College London (UCL). 

A UK start-up which is developing a candidate molecule for multiple myeloma has received £1.85 million in seed funding from Imperial Innovations Group Plc. Kesios Therapeutics Ltd was set up to commercialise the research of Guido Franzoso of Imperial College London.

Three members of the executive committee of Novartis will be leaving the Swiss company following its decision to sell its vaccines and animal health businesses and put its over-the-counter medicines business into a new joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

TVM Capital Life Science has raised $201.6 million at the final closing of its latest venture fund drawing on a diverse group of investors from the Business Development Bank of Canada to Eli Lilly and Company.

A scientist at University College London and two from Norway have been awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in describing how the brain operates a positioning system enabling spatial navigation.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Advanced Therapies (CAT) is recommending that the marketing authorisation for the cartilage implant Maci be suspended because the developer, Genzyme (Sanofi SA), has closed the product’s EU manufacturing site.

From 1 January 2015, the European Medicines Agency will begin to publish clinical data used by companies to support their applications to market new drugs in the EU – a policy that is expected to have wide-ranging implications for medicines research across Europe.