Elan Corporation Plc is refinancing its long-term to take advantage of low interest rates. If successful, the offering would eliminate the Dublin-based company’s long-term, high-interest debt and pave the way for refinancing on better terms.
Wellington Partners has raised €70 million for a new life science fund that will support early-stage European companies – with an emphasis on medical devices, diagnostics and drug-device
MorphoSys AG said its candidate antibody for rheumatoid arthritis targeting granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) has shown an unusually high efficacy score at four weeks in a Phase 1b/2a clinical study.
The European Medicines Agency’s CHMP is recommending that Avastin (bevacizumab) be given approval for use in combination with chemotherapy to treat women with recurrent, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer.
Clinigen Group Plc, which services clinical trials and markets an antiviral drug to treat herbes viruses, will be listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market from 25 September - the first pharma IPO on the AIM market in five years.
A research project supported by MRC Technology of the UK and directed at new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, has reached an important threshold with the humanisation of a next-generation antibody binding to amyloid beta.
In what is being described as the largest initiative of its kind, 10 large pharmaceutical companies have announced the setting up a non-profit organisation through which they will collaborate to accelerate and improve clinical research.
CureVac GmbH, developer of a novel messenger RNA vaccine technology, has obtained €80 million in new financing from its principal shareholder, dievini Hopp Biotech Holding, enabling it to advance the clinical development of its lead product – a therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer.
Evotec AG has secured a multi-year contract with the US National Institutes of Health to manage the institute’s small molecule repository, a library of small-molecule compounds. The agreement, which may last for up to 10 years, is valued at €60 million.
London has been selected as one of four new regional innovation centres by Johnson & Johnson Inc which is in the process of reorganising its early-stage life science investments. The other centres will be in the US and China.