News

Addex Pharmaceuticals Plc has entered into an exclusive, global licensing agreement with Merck & Co. to develop a candidate drug for treating schizophrenia and other undisclosed indications. The deal is potentially valued at up to $700 million, the company said.

Oxford Genome Sciences (UK) Ltd has entered into a strategic collaboration with Amgen Inc to discover, develop and commercialise therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Lundbeck A/S has agreed to take over the development of desmoteplase, a candidate product for stroke, from Paion AG of Germany following a re-analysis of a failed Phase 3 study that showed the drug still had potential for treating patients with acute ischemic stroke.

The management and supervisory boards of 4SC, a German drug discovery and development company, are recommending that shareholders reject a takeover bid from Santo Holding (Deutschland) GmbH, an investment company owned by one of Germany’s wealthiest families. Santos Holding had 31.28% of 4SC on 3 December 2007.

A Texas-based company that is developing treatments for cancer has raised its stake in AdnaGen AG of Germany to 85% from 51%. The company, Oncovista of San Antonio, said AdnaGen’s technology for detecting circulating tumour cells (CTCs) will improve its ability to prescreen patients for clinical trials.

Ablynx NV of Belgium said that its collaborations with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and with Novartis relating to the development of antibody-derived therapeutic proteins, have each been extended for one year.

Member states of the European Union have approved a new research initiative for the life sciences that, for the first time, will bring the European Commission and industry together into a public-private partnership to improve the way new drugs are developed.

The outlook for Pronova BioPharma’s lead product, an omega-3 derived prescription medicine for hypertriglyceridemia (HTG), has improved following GlaxoSmithKline’s $1.65 billion acquisition of Reliant Pharmaceuticals Inc. The takeover was completed on 19 December 2007.

A technology platform developed by Intercell AG to discover candidate vaccines received further validation with the start of a Phase 2 trial by its partner, Merck & Co. The trial is designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a prophylactic vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus infection. S. aureus is the most common cause of hospital-acquired infections.

A four-year project aimed at identifying target molecules for the development of new treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases is being launched in the Netherlands,