GlaxoSmithKline Plc has taken the unusual step of tapping the engineering expertise of a sports car manufacturer, the McLaren Group, in order to improve the way it conducts clinical trials, and manufactures pharmaceuticals.
Privately-held Humabs BioMed SA of Switzerland has been launched as an independent company in order to commercialise antibody technology that includes a prospective broadly neutralising antibody against Groups 1 and 2 influenza A viruses.
The US Food and Drug Administration has reorganised the office that deals with oncology drug products in order to take a more disease-specific approach to the evaluation of these medicines. Richard Pazdur will continue as director.
GE Healthcare has announced plans to allocate $1 billion over five years to expand its diagnostic and imaging capabilities in oncology as well as to improve its manufacturing technologies. This will include new spending on biomarkers.
A service provider for the life science industry, Horizon Discovery Ltd, has completed the second closing of a Series C funding round, raising a total of £11.3 million via a private share placement. The round was led by MVM Life Sciences.
H. Lundbeck A/S, which specialises in diseases of the central nervous system, has reduced its senior management and appointed the chief executive of its French operations as head of its commercial operations.
The Anglo-German biotechnology company, Cellzome, has delivered a candidate small molecule drug to GlaxoSmithKline Plc for development against an undisclosed kinase target in the area of inflammatory disease, the first of two new milestones.
Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd has formed a collaboration with Seattle Genetics Inc to jointly discover antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) for cancer. ADCs are antibodies attached by a linker to a cytotoxic drug and designed to kill cancer cells.
Silence Therapeutics Plc has announced plans to collaborate with a privately-owned company in the Netherlands, InteRNA Technologies BV, to develop microRNA therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Financial details were not disclosed.
Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA is strengthening its ties with Merck Serono as the two companies seek to validate two new CNS compounds. The expanded collaboration was highlighted in Newron’s financial report for the 2011 first half.