Scientists from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the US have reported transforming human embryonic stem cells into a type of neuron that plays a critical role in memory. The findings have been published in Stem Cells.
AstraZeneca Plc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co have won a label update in Europe and the US for their Type 2 diabetes drug, Onglyza (saxagliptin), for adults with Type 2 diabetes who have moderate or severe renal impairment.
An investigational drug for patients with Type 2 diabetes has failed to show non-inferiority in a clinical trial that compared it with a competitor. The drug, Bydureon, is an extended release formulation of exenatide.
Galápagos NV, the Belgian drug discovery and development company, achieved a net profit of €4.4 million in 2010 compared with €3 million the previous year while increasing its spending on research and development by 41% to €84.7 million.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts have reported finding a regulator of gene activity that can instruct epidermal stem cells to grow or stop growing, a finding that may have use for cancer as well as regenerative medicine.
The Renovo Group Plc is reducing its staff and the size of its board of directors in the wake of the failure of a Phase 3 trial of its wound-healing product, Juvista. Recruitment is also being stopped for a trial of a second tissue product.
A group of Danish researchers, backed by a DKK 90 million (€12 mln) grant from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation, have joined forces to identify still-unknown pathogens that may cause cancer. Bavarian Nordic is a project partner.
UCB SA of Belgium is to allocate up to $6 million over two years to a new collaboration with Harvard University focusing on research into future therapeutics for immunological diseases and diseases of the central nervous system.
UCB SA is predicting that it will cross the fabled ‘patent cliff’ in 2012 as new products replace those that have gone off patent thereby providing a foundation for future growth. The forecast was issued with the company’s 2010 financial results.
Ipsen SA, the French speciality pharmaceutical company, said that revenues rose by 5.2% in 2010 to about €1.2 billion while net profit attributable to shareholders declined by 39.1% to €95.3 million.