News

Biocartis NV, a Belgian developer of molecular diagnostics, has raised €64.5 million in equity finance to support the commercialisation of its Idylla diagnostic system.

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued its first approval for a checkpoint inhibitor that targets the T cell receptor programmed death 1 or PD-1 for the treatment of advanced melanoma. The drug, Keytruda (pembrolizumab), was developed by Merck & Co Inc.

 In keeping with the trend among European biotechs to finance themselves in the US, Ablynx NV of Belgium has started an open-ended programme of selling its shares on the US over-the-counter market through the creation of American Depository Receipts (ADRs).

Bavarian Nordic A/S announced that its contract with the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) for the supply of smallpox vaccine has been renewed for a second time.

In the latest of a series of single asset deals among biopharma firms, AbbVie Inc has agreed to pay up to $805 million for rights to a mid-stage cancer drug being developed by Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc with potential applications in a broad range of blood cancers.

The European Commission has granted a marketing authorisation for a new treatment for HIV, Triumeq, that combines the integrase strand transfer inhibitor dolutegravir with the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors abacavir and lamivudine.

Affimed Therapeutics AG, which is in the queue to make an initial public offering of its shares in the US, has in the meantime obtained $29.7 million from its venture investors and Perceptive Advisors LLC of New York City.

Novo Nordisk A/S said it is discontinuing its research into inflammatory diseases following the termination of its anti-interleukin-20 treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, which was its most advanced drug candidate in the field.

Novartis is planning regulatory submissions in both the US and Europe for a new heart drug in the wake of trial results showing the drug's superior performance to enalapril, a standard treatment for hypertension and heart failure.

ThromboGenics NV of Belgium reported revenues of €7.1 million for the first half of 2014 and a loss of €23.9 million in the period but its directors estimated that the ophthalmic company would produce positive cash flow by 2017 and revenue of €100 million by 2019.