News

Researchers at the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium have joined forces with two French pharmaceutical companies to discover new compounds targeting the  LRRK2 gene in Parkinson’s disease.

Venture-capital backed Poxel SA of France has raised €13 million in a Series B round to support the clinical development of its lead product for Type 2 diabetes, Imeglimin. The financing was led by Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners.

Austria’s leading biotechnology company, Intercell AG, has agreed to merge with Vivalis SA of France in an all-share transaction that will give Vivalis’s shareholders a controlling stake in a new, combined company to be located in Lyons, France.

MorphoSys AG has announced plans to sell its service business, AbD Serotec, to Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc for €53 million in cash. The divestment will enable the German company to focus on its therapeutic antibody business.

H. Lundbeck A/S is to sell 10 non-core assets to Recordati S.p.A. of Italy in order to focus on its newer products in the area of neurological disorders. The Danish company said it will receive up to $100 million which will be reinvested in new products and geographical expansion.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug to treat adults with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) – three months ahead of schedule.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new monoclonal antibody to treat inhaled anthrax, considered a potential biological terrorism threat because the spores of the bacterium are resistant to destruction and can be spread in the air.

The European Medicines Agency’s main scientific committee has recommended that a new treatment for alcohol dependence, Selincro (nalmefene), be licensed in Europe. The H. Lundbeck A/S drug is for adults with high rates of alcohol consumption.

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has turned down an application from  Genzyme (Sanofi) to market an antisense compound for familial hypercholesterolaemia citing safety concerns. Genzyme said it will appeal against the opinion. 

AstraZeneca Plc has signalled its interest in antisense technology with the recent announcement of a new strategic alliance with Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc in oncology. The main asset is an inhibitor of the STAT3 protein which is overexpressed in numerous cancers.