News

Bavarian Nordic A/S, the Danish vaccine-maker, reported higher sales and a lower loss in 2011, mainly as the result of increasing deliveries of its smallpox vaccine to the US health authorities.

InDex Pharmaceuticals AB, a privately-held Swedish immunotherapy company, is starting a Phase 3 trial of Kappaproct, which has performed well in earlier tests in treating steroid-resistant ulcerative colitis patients.

Intercell AG of said in its preliminary annual report for 2011 that restructuring should lead to profitability in 2014. The Austrian vaccine producer reported a €29.3 million loss for 2011, much lower than the €255.2 million deficit in 2010.

Oxford BioMedica Plc has reduced staff, appointed a new finance director, and closed an office in the US as it conserves cash in order to support the next phase of development of its candidate gene therapies and its therapeutic vaccine for cancer, TroVax.

Patients with two common eye diseases have been safely treated with cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESC), the first such treatment to be carried out in humans. The results were reported on 25 February 2012 in The Lancet.

MorphoSys AG reported a 16% increase in revenue in 2011 and a 24% rise in operating profit as its pharmaceutical partners paid significant sums for access to its antibody technology platform.

UCB SA achieved its revenue and earnings targets for 2011, while declaring that a  period of sustained growth lies ahead as its off-patent medicines are replaced by new proprietary products.

Galápagos NV has secured a lucrative licensing deal with Abbott Laboratories Inc for an oral Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor for rheumatoid arthritis just three months after the drug showed efficacy in a four-week Phase 2a proof-of-concept study.

Ipsen SA reported a 5.5% annual increase in revenues for 2011 to €1.2 billion but exceptional charges of €127.2 million reduced its operating profit by 41.2% to €75.8 million.

Paion AG has decided to sell its remaining rights to the candidate stroke drug, desmoteplase, to H. Lundbeck A/S in order to bolster its cash position and concentrate on therapies for anaesthesia and critical care. The deal will yield €20.1 million.