France-based Nicox SA, which is building a commercial ophthalmic business, generated €2.6 million in revenue in the 2014 first half, most of which came from product sales. Revenue for the period a year earlier was €0.2 million.
Ablynx NV improved its revenue and cash position in the first half of 2014 largely due to upfront payments from research partners Merck & Co Inc, AbbVie Inc and Merck Serono. The Merck programme is investigating immune checkpoint inhibitors for cancer.
Fresh from a successful European initial public share offering, the Belgian antibody developer ArGEN-X NV has given an update on the progress of its two lead products directed at potential cancer indications.
Medtronic Inc has paid €150 million in cash to acquire Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation BV, a Dutch company developing deep brain stimulation technologies for the treatment of the movement symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
An indirect affiliate of Johnson & Johnson Inc, Cilag GmbH International of Zug, Switzerland, has acquired Covagen AG from Covagen’s venture capital and other private investors for an undisclosed amount.
The Roche Group is to acquire InterMune Inc of the US for $8.3 billion in cash in order to gain access to that company’s respiratory portfolio that includes a marketed product for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies.
The Japanese stem cell scientist Yoshiki Sasai, whose papers on somatic cell reprogramming created controversy earlier this year and were later retracted by Nature, was found dead in early August, reportedly by suicide.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), a type of adult stem cell, have properties that make them potentially suitable for a wide range of therapies. Depending on how they are cultured, they can produce cartilage, bone and fat and help control inflammation and immunity.
UniQure NV of the Netherlands, the first company in the western world to market a licensed gene therapy, has expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of a German biotechnology company with a preclinical product for the treatment of congestive heart failure.
A protein that plays a key role in the blood stage of the malaria parasite has been described by scientists from the University of Oxford, the Jenner Institute and the Denmark-based contract research organisation Expres2ion Biotechnologies. The findings were published online in the journal Nature.