News

SkyPharma gives business update

Country
United Kingdom

SkyePharma Plc has updated investors on the company’s financial outlook as preparations continue for a potential launch of its asthma product, Flutiform. Revenues in 2010 are expected to show a modest increase from a year earlier.

ThromboGenics fundraising exceeds expectations

Country
Belgium

ThromboGenics NV of Belgium has succeeded in raising €56 million through a private placement of its shares, well above the targeted amount of €35 million. A total of 2,944,523 new shares were placed with domestic and international investors.

Medivir raises €30.8 million in private placement

Country
Sweden

Medivir AB of Sweden, which is a research-based speciality pharmaceutical company, has raised SEK 280 million (€30.8 million) in a private placement of its shares, more than two thirds of which were placed with institutional investors.

Merck & Co to acquire insulin developer

Country
United States

Merck & Co has announced plans to acquire a private US company that has developed a new insulin formulation for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. The transaction is valued at in excess of $500 million assuming milestones are met.

FDA panel votes against expanded use of prostate cancer drug

Country
United States

A US Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has voted not to recommend an expanded indication for the prostate cancer drug, dutasteride. The sponsor, GlaxoSmithKline, is seeking to have it approved for prostate cancer risk reduction.

Complete response letter issued for anti-epileptic

Country
United States

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a complete response letter for ezogabine, an investigational anti-epileptic drug, saying it cannot accept the application for marketing. GSK and Valeant Pharmaceuticals are the sponsors.

Round-up of European biotech funding

Country

Antibiotic projects aimed at tackling multi-drug resistant bacteria are among the novel programmes to have received funding from government institutions and venture capitalists in Europe recently. The following article summarises this seed funding, as well as financing for later-stage biotechnology projects.

SuppreMol GmbH closes €15.5 million Series C round

Country
Germany

SuppreMol GmbH, a 2002 spin-out of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany, has closed a €15.5 million Series C financing round to further clinical studies of its lead product for two autoimmune diseases.

J&J to start offer for Crucell despite manufacturing problem

Country
Netherlands

Johnson & Johnson Inc said it will start its previously-announced €1.75 billion offer for Crucell NV before 10 December despite an ongoing investigation into a manufacturing problem at a plant in Korea that has affected two Crucell vaccines.