News

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have reported identifying a pathway that generates aberrant forms of proteins said to be at the root of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

BTG Plc has raised a gross £106.3 million in a share placement with institutional investors to partially fund two North American acquisitions that will strengthen the British company’s presence in the hospital market.

Agennix AG said that its shareholders have voted in favour of liquidating the company in light of management’s inablity to find a buyer following the failure of its lead product, talactoferrin, in a late-stage trial for non-small cell lung cancer in 2012.

Novo A/S, the financing entity that is at the apex of Denmark’s pharmaceutical industry, has acquired all the share capital of Xellia Pharmaceuticals AS of Norway for about $700 million. One of the sellers was Britain’s 3i Group Plc.

SuppreMol GmbH, which specialises in autoimmune diseases, has raised €9.5 million as the second part of a €16 million series D financing for the Phase 2 development of its lead autoimmune drug candidate.

The Wellcome Trust is allocating £2.7 million to a UK project that will use new gene sequencing technology to identify mutations that predispose patients to cancer and then to integrate this information into routine patient care.

Elan Corporation Plc has announced a further restructuring and a share repurchase plan in a bid to win over shareholders who are being wooed by the US investment group Royalty Pharma in an unsolicited takeover bid.

Advocates of stem-cell research have applauded the recent report that US scientists have successfully reprogrammed human skin cells to become embryonic stem cells capable of transforming into any other cell type in the body.

Atlas Ventures of the US has entered into new partnership agreements with Amgen and Novartis in connection with the closing of its ninth investment fund Atlas IX. The two companies are limited partners of the fund, and will participate in the creation of new  startup companies.

AbbVie Inc (formerly part of Abbott Laboratories) is expanding its collaboration with Galápagos NV of Belgium to take the Galápagos JAK1 inhibitor, GLPG0634, into Crohn’s disease. The molecule is already being investigated for rheumatoid arthritis.