Johnson & Johnson Inc and two of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay about $2 billion to the US government and state Medicaid programmes to settle a drug mis-selling case and related matters in which the company is alleged to have improperly promoted the antipsychotic drug Risperdal (risperidone) to elderly patients with dementia.
Algeta ASA of Norway said that the US roll-out of its recently approved radiopharmaceutical, Xofigo, is proceeding according to plan with $17 million already recognised by its partner Bayer AG in the third quarter. Bayer licensed global rights for the product in 2009.
Biocartis NV has raised €30 million in a Series E equity fundraising ahead of the 2014 launch of a suite of molecular diagnostic products aimed at the global oncology market. The round was entirely supported by existing investors.
ArGEN-X BV has recruited a new venture capital investor to its cohort of financial supporters enabling it to prepare to move a novel antibody fragment with potential for autoimmune diseases into the clinic.
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP) has raised €192 million for its fourth BioDiscovery fund, increasing its investment capacity by almost 25% relative to its previous fund. Altogether EdRIP has now raised €450 million for life science.
Vienna-based Hookipa Biotech AG has raised €20 million from institutional investors to bring a vaccine candidate for cytomegalovirus into the clinic and to build a pipeline of products for oncology and infectious disease.
Novo Nordisk A/S, the Danish producer of diabetes products, reported a 3.4% advance in revenue to DKK 20.5 billion (€2.75 billion) in the third quarter and a 13.2% rise in net profit to DKK 6.4 billion.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Roche’s Gazyva (obinutuzumab) in combination with the chemotherapy chlorambucil for patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).
Galecto Biotech AB has raised SEK 40 million (€4.5 million) in follow-on funding from its existing investors to progress its portfolio of candidate molecules that modulate galectins, a family of proteins.
Cytos Biotechnology Ltd of Switzerland said that it will seek shareholder approval for a rights issue valued at up to CHF 17.6 million (€14.3 million) in order to take its lead immunotherapy for allergic asthma through Phase 2b proof of concept.