AstraZeneca Plc is to sell its Swedish-based dental and healthcare businesses to Dentsply Ltd of the UK for about $1.8 billion in cash. The unit, Astra Tech, specialises in dental implants and medical devices for urology and surgery.
Privately-owned Axxam Spa of Milan, Italy has received funding from the US Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation to discover new small molecule drugs for Alzheimer’s disease that block the puringeric receptor, P2X7. The size of the grant was not disclosed.
Oxford BioMedica Plc said that its gene therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration was shown to be safe and well-tolerated following the administration of a first dose in a Phase 1 study at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US.
An advisory panel of the US Food and Drug Administration has voted not to recommend approval of canakinumab for the treatment of gouty arthritis attacks in patients who cannot get relief from NSAIDS, according to the drug’s sponsor, Novartis.
A France-based medical imaging company, Mauna Kea Technologies, has announced plans to make an initial public offering of its shares on NYSE Euronext in Paris with the goal of raising about €38.9 million.
The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a draft guidance for companies that may be planning to develop and submit an application for marketing for an artificial pancreas system for people with Type 1 diabetes.
Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc is set to receive a $4 million milestone from GlaxoSmithKline Plc in connection with the selection of a lead HIV protease inhibitor for clinical development. The candidate drug will enter efficacy studies in 2012.
Roche has reported that its investigational treatment for advanced basal cell carcinoma, vismodegib, shrank tumours in a Phase 2 study of patients with locally-advanced disease and those with metastatic disease.
Sanofi SA has entered into a two-year research collaboration with a small Netherlands-based company, Audion Therapeutics BV, to develop potential treatments for hearing loss by targeting progenitor cells in the inner ear with small molecule compounds.
ReNeuron Group Plc has upgraded its collaboration with the Schepens Eye Research Institute in the US with the signing of a patent and licensing deal giving it rights to develop and commercialise human retinal precursor cells (hRPCs).