News

Sanofi SA has announced plans to eliminate about 900 jobs in France by 2015 through voluntary measures. The plans are less severe than suggested in the summer by trade unions who would have been affected by the move.

SkyePharma Plc said that bondholders have approved a major debt refinancing that will lighten its short-term liquidity commitments. Separately, the company confirmed that it is due €4 million following the launch of flutiform in Germany.

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.