Thrombogenics NV and BioInvent International AB have decided to stop development of an early-stage anticoagulant after safety issues were identified. They have also regained a cancer asset from Roche, which has left the programme.
Erytech Pharma SA has received €6.95 million in grants and credits from the French innovation agency, OSEO, to lead a consortium that will investigate new therapies for the enzymatic treatment of chemotherapy or radiotherapy-resistant cancers.
Alize Pharma of France has raised €3.3 million from its existing shareholders to take an experimental product for metabolic disease into a first-in-human study. The study will be carried out in healthy volunteers in 2013.
New data from a Phase 2 study of the prostate cancer drug, tasquinimod, show longer median overall survival times than previously reported for this patient population, according to the sponsors, Active Biotech AB and Ipsen SA. The data were reported at Asco.
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc said that a Phase 3 trial of its tyrosine kinase inhibitor, afatinib, in patients with non-small lung cancer reached its primary endpoint of progression free survival. Data are being presented at Asco on 4 June.
A Phase 3 trial of the Bayer compound, regorafenib, in patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) has met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival, according to the sponsors. Data are being presented at Asco on 4 June.
Genmab A/S is to receive $2 million upfront from Novartis as part of a new collaboration in which the Swiss multinational will use Genmab technology to identify candidate bispecific antibodies against two disease target combinations.
Roche said that its antibody-drug conjugate, trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1), has met its co-primary endpoint of a significant improvement in progression-free survival in a Phase 3 study of patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH has reported new data from a Phase 2 study of its experimental vaccine for advanced colorectal cancer which showed that patients survived longer compared with a matched cohort from a larger UK Medical Research Council-supported study (COIN). The data were presented on 1 June at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.
Venture-capital backed Nabriva Therapeutics AG has agreed to sell rights to its lead pleuromutilin antibiotic to Forest Laboratories Inc in exchange for $25 million. Forest also has an exclusive right to buy the company outright within a specified time.