AstraZeneca is maintaining is forecast for a decline in core earnings per share this year that is steeper than the expected fall in revenue. But workforce reductions and other efficiency measures have also freed up cash to invest in new products.
With growth from new products now overtaking patent-related sales declines, Sanofi SA declared that it had scaled the patent cliff at the end of September. Total sales, measured in constant exchange rates, were €8,432 million, up by 0.6% from a year earlier.
Ipsen SA, the French pharma company, said that drug sales increased at a slightly faster pace in the third quarter than during the first nine months of the year helped by a recovery of its primary care business.
UCB SA has confirmed that its underlying profitability will improve this year led by a trio of new products that address immune and central nervous system disorders. The company recently won expanded indications for one of these products, Cimzia (certolizumab pegol).
Five-year follow-up data from a pioneering trachea transplantation using tissue-engineered materials has confirmed that the procedure is safe and effective, according to a report in The Lancet. The follow-up report takes into account a stent procedure carried out in the recovery period to address scarring.
Shire Plc, the Dublin-headquartered specialty pharmaceutical company, reported sharply higher revenue and earnings in the third quarter as the result of a 13% rise in product sales and lower costs following a merger of its three autonomous R&D divisions into one in May.
AstraZeneca Plc has selected a microRNA target from a collaboration with California-based Regulus Therapeutics Inc which will be used to develop a new oncology therapeutic. The target is one of three being investigated under a 2012 collaboration between the two companies.
Sygnis AG of Germany has raised gross proceeds of €2.7 million from a rights offering and private placement to support its growth as a service provider of DNA amplification and sequencing products.
Since 2007, legislation known as the Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products Regulation (ATMP) has been in place to set regulatory standards for assessing gene, cell and tissue-engineered products. Yet in this time only four ATMPs have been approved for marketing.
The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has given positive opinions to a new drug for depression developed by H. Lundbeck A/S, and one for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) by Actelion Ltd. The decisions were announced on 25 October.