News

Ipsen SA reported little change in revenue for 2013 at €1.28 billion but within that figure pharmaceutical sales rose by 2.1% to €1.19 billion at constant exchange rates.

MorphoSys AG reported a 50% increase in revenue in 2013, mainly the result of antibody licensing deals with GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Celgene Corp and the sale of its service business AbD Serotec.

Actelion Ltd’s investigational antibiotic for the treatment of Clostridium difficule-associated diarrhoea has been singled out for a ‘fast track’ designation by the US Food and Drug Administration because of its potential to improve public health.

Bavarian Nordic A/S has secured a new contract with an agency of the US government for its vaccine technology, this time with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), part of the Department of Defense.

Roche has entered into a collaboration with a two-year old UK company, Discuva Ltd, to discover and develop new antibiotics to treat infections caused by multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria – the most difficult-to-treat bacteria.

UCB SA expects that global demand for its core neurology and immunology products will deliver solid growth in 2014 as the company makes the transition to new management. Jean-Christophe Tellier, a rheumatologist and currently executive vice president of the company, is scheduled to take over as chief executive on 1 January 2015, from Roch Doliveux, the current CEO.

Abingworth LLP has raised £225 million from investors for its tenth life sciences fund that will provide venture capital to companies in Europe and the US. The proceeds exceeded the investment group’s target of £200 million.

InDex Pharmaceuticals AB of Sweden has raised $20 million (€15 million) in a share placement with institutional investors ahead of the release of data from a late-stage trial of its lead product Kappaproct for severe ulcerative colitis.

Eli Lilly and Company’s experimental drug for Type 2 diabetes, dulaglutide, has met its primary endpoint of non-inferiority in a Phase 3 trial where it was being compared with Novo Nordisk’s Victoza. Both drugs are glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new hormone replacement therapy for the treatment of complications of leptin deficiency, the first approved therapy for the disease. Myalept (metreleptin) was developed by Amylin Pharmaceuticals LLC.