Pharming Group NV has reached a deal with former shareholders of its wholly-owned subsidiary, DNage BV, under which the shareholders will forego €10 million of earn-out payments due to them in return for 49% of DNage and 5 million Pharming shares.
Crucell NV is accelerating the development of its pipeline amid plans to increase spending on research and development by more than one-third in 2010. Overseeing the company’s R&D strategy is the new CMO, Jerald Sadoff.
Intercell AG is investing €15 million to acquire antibody technology directed at discovering new therapies for infectious disease including hospital-acquired infections. It is buying the technology from Cytos Biotechnology Ltd.
NicOx SA’s candidate product for osteoarthritis, naproxcinod, has failed to get the support of a joint US Food and Drug Administration advisory committee which said the French’s company’s new drug application needs more data.
SkyePharma Plc said that it has applied to have its asthma treatment, Flutiform, approved for marketing in Europe, while preparations are underway to test the drug in Phase 3 trials in Japan. The UK company gave the product update on 12 May 2010.
Galapagos NV said that it has expanded a risk-sharing deal with Roche aimed at discovering new therapies against chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to increase the number of targets for antibody drugs. The deal dates from January 2010.
CureVac GmbH, which is developing therapeutic vaccines against cancer, has raised €27.6 million from dievini Hopp BioTech holding GmbH, the investment company of Dietmar Hopp. The company has a compound for prostate cancer in Phase 2a.
More embryonic stem cell lines approved for US funding
Algeta ASA is expanding the clinical development programme for its radiopharmaceutical, Alpharadin (radium 223 chloride), to see if the product can be used for bone metastases from breast cancer as well as those from prostate cancer.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new combination hormonal tablet for use as an oral contraceptive. The drug, Natazia (estradiol valerate and estradiol valerate/dienogest), is manufactured by the US division of Bayer AG.