Seventure Partners, an indirect subsidiary of the French financial conglomerate, Natixis SA, has launched a new fund called Health for Life Capital that will invest in companies focused on nutrition and the science relating to the human microbiome.
Roche has announced the failure of two studies in a large Phase 3 programme which is investigating the efficacy of bitopertin, a glycine reuptake inhibitor, in schizophrenia. The company said it will wait for data from the remaining studies before deciding its next steps.
An experimental gene therapy has shown promise in a Phase 1/2 study of patients with an inherited cause of progressive blindness called choroideremia. Six patients receiving the treatment have shown improvements in their vision six months after treatment, according to an article in The Lancet.
Shire Plc is to divest Dermagraft, a bio-engineered skin substitute, as part of a strategic review set in motion by the company’s chief executive Flemming Ornskov. The Dermagraft assets are being sold to Organogenesis Inc in exchange for future milestone payments.
The potential of stem cells as future therapies could be linked to a greater understanding of how mitochondria are transferred among cells in the human body leading to the repair of damaged tissue, according to a paper in The EMBO Journal on 15 January.
JLL/Delta Dutch Newco BV, a company set up to combine the assets of Canada’s Patheon Inc and the pharmaceutical division of Royal DSM of the Netherlands, is raising $500 million with a private placement of eight-year notes in New York.
Further data from a previously-reported Phase 1/2 study of ProSavin, a gene therapy for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease, confirms the treatment’s favourable safety profile. Developed by Oxford BioMedica Plc, ProSavin is delivered in a lentiviral vector.
Sanofi SA is initiating a new approach to antibiotic development with a decision to team up with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany to research naturally occurring chemical and biological compounds for their potential as medicines.
Venture capital-backed 4-Antibody AG of Switzerland is to be acquired by Agenus Inc of the US in a deal intended to exploit the Swiss company’s technology for producing antibodies that target checkpoint molecules, key regulators of the immune system.
Alkermes Plc is raising $250 million from a placement of its shares with the Invesco Perpetual Income Fund and the Invesco Perpetual High Income Fund. The placement comes three months after the company’s product for depression received ‘fast-track’ designation from the FDA.