News

The specialist UK healthcare company, BTG Plc, has reported progress in the development and commercialisation of its own and partnered programmes, including recent UK approval of its antidote for digoxin overdose.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in the US have reported a new gene mutation linked to Parkinson’s disease and identified in a large Swiss family with the disease. The finding was reported in the American Journal of Human Genetics on 19 July.

Novartis’s diversified healthcare portfolio underpinned group sales and profit in the 2011 second quarter with significant contributions made by sales of generic medicines, consumer health products and recently-acquired Alcon Inc.

Pfizer Ltd has withdrawn an application from the European Medicines Agency to extend the indication of its eye medicine, Macugen (pegaptanib sodium) to include the treatment of visual impairment due to diabetic macular oedema, the EMA said.

The Roche group has agreed to pay €130 million upfront to acquire 100% of a Heidelberg-based company which is developing in vitro diagnostics for the early detection and diagnosis of cervical cancer. The company is Mtm Laboratories AG.

A recently created spin-out of GlaxoSmithKline Plc has started a Phase 2 study of a new small-molecule treatment for pain that acts against a sodium channel known as Nav1.7. The company is Convergence Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new indication for the ulcerative colitis drug, Lialda (mesalamine), for the maintenance of remission in patients with the disease, according to the drug’s sponsor, Shire Plc.

A combination therapy of pertuzumab, trastuzumab and docetaxel for women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer has met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival in a Phase 3 study, according to the trial’s sponsor, Roche.

Evolva Holding SA has successfully completed a Phase 1 study of a new small molecule compound that is being positioned to treat people with diabetes at risk of vascular or renal complications. The study involved 32 volunteers.

After a period active deal-making, Wilex AG is positioning itself for some key milestones in the coming months including the reporting of an interim analysis of a Phase 3 trial of Rencarex (girentuximab), its therapy for renal cell cancer.