The European Commission has allocated €30 million to a collaboration of academic institutions and companies to investigate new immunisation technologies for the next generation of vaccines. The project comes under Framework Programme 7 (FP7).
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have reported that a pathway that is activated in cancer appears to play a role in metabolic diseases like Type 2 diabetes. The findings are reported in the 30 September 2011 issue of the journal, Cell.
H. Lundbeck A/S has decided to invest £10.3 million in Proximagen Group Plc of the UK in the second alignment of companies involved in the CNS research space this week. The first was Biotie Therapies Corp’s announcement on 27 September of plans to acquire Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA.
Merck & Co has decided to sell to Johnson & Johnson its 50% interest in a consumer products’ joint venture between the two companies in order to focus its resources on building a similar business acquired in the takeover of Schering-Plough in 2009.
Sanofi has raised $1 billion with a three-year note issue priced to yield 1.242% semi-annually or 83 basis points over the comparable U.S treasury issue.
A Paris-based life science company, Nanobiotix SA, has received clearance to start a Phase 1 safety study of a new nanoproduct in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma. The product has been classified as a device in Europe, but as a drug in the US.
Hypha Discovery Ltd of the UK has entered into a discovery collaboration with Ferrer Grupo of Spain to identify new low-molecular weight natural products that could be used to treat microbial infections. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The pace of consolidation within the European biotech sector quickened on 27 September as Biotie Therapies Corp of Finland announced plans to acquire Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA of Italy for €45 million, creating a group with two late-stage assets in neurology.
Algeta ASA said it expects to make regulatory filings in the US and Europe by mid-2012 for its radiopharmaceutical, Alpharadin, following a Phase 3 trial which showed improved survival in patients with prostate cancer and bone metastases.
Roche and its partner, ImmunoGen Inc, said Phase 2 data for their antibody-drug conjugate, T-DM1, in patients with metastatic breast cancer showed better progression-free survival than those on trastuzumab and chemotherapy.