Research funded by a Norwegian-based group has recently shown that primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a rare disorder affecting the liver, is a distinct disease with its own genetic architecture. Previously it was thought to be a sub-set of inflammatory bowel disease. Published in Nature Genetics on 21 April, the research associates nine new genetic regions with PSC, raising the total to 16.
AstraZeneca Plc is to pay up to $443 million to acquire Omthera Pharmaceuticals Inc of Princeton, New Jersey, a five-year-old company with a single product – a late stage omega-3 free fatty acid composition to treat hypertriglyceridaemia.
A consortium led by Merus BV of the Netherlands is set to receive €5.9 million from the European Union’s FP7 programme to develop a prospective antibody-based therapy and screening tools for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
Roche has announced a new collaboration with Macrocyclics, a member of the Areva group, to continue development of a novel chelating agent for use in radioimmunotherapy. This is the second collaboration between the two companies.
Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA) SA of France has raised €4.8 million in a placement of its shares with existing and new investors in order to finance an expansion of its manufacturing capacity for radioactive agents for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging. Funds will also be used to investigate a second indication for the company’s radiopharmaceutical for cancer, Lutathera.
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.