A group of investors led by the venture capital group, Inventages, has raised €7 million in a Series B funding round for Phagenesis Ltd, the developer of a medical device for dysphagia, a condition that affects a patient’s ability to swallow.
A team of European researchers has reported on a new epigenetic approach for the treatment of mixed lineage leukaemia (MLL), an aggressive form of cancer which is thought to account for up to eight out of 10 cases of the disease in children.
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd has completed its €9.6 billion acquisition of privately-owned Nycomed A/S of Switzerland giving it cash flow from Nycomed’s €2.8 billion in annual sales as well as a recently launched product for COPD.
Sanofi SA expects to deliver sales growth of at least 5% per year on average from 2012 to 2015 while preparing regulatory files for an estimated 19 new products. Recently-acquired Genzyme will broaden its pipeline with drugs for rare diseases and MS.
Silence Therapeutics Plc has entered a second collaboration in under a month, this time with an unidentified pharmaceutical company to exploit Silence’s RNAi delivery technology. The follows an earlier agreement with a Dutch company in therapeutics.
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.