News

Following a 2% rise in group sales in the first nine months of 2010, the Roche Group has confirmed that it expects core earnings per share at constant exchange rates to show double-digit growth for the full year.

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning about the possible risk of atypical thigh bone fracture in patients who take bisphosphonates which are used to prevent and treat osteoporosis. Manufactures are being asked to alter their labels.

In a groundbreaking agreement, H. Lundbeck A/S has entered into a collaboration with Genmab A/S to develop human antibody therapeutics for disorders of the central nervous system. This will be Lundbeck’s first entry into antibody therapeutics.

Data from a large Phase 3 trial of a new hormone therapy, abiraterone, for men with prostate cancer has been called significant by a prostate cancer expert at Cancer Research UK. The data showed the drug gave a nearly four-month survival advantage.

Novartis has become the latest pharmaceutical company to invest in antibody-drug conjugates, a technology that is said to hold considerable promise for the treatment of cancer.

The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) and Roche Molecular Systems Inc have entered into a three-year collaboration to find out if they can predict a woman’s risk for developing cervical cancer.

Merck Serono has announced plans to appeal against the European Medicines Agency’s decision not to recommend approval of its candidate multiple sclerosis drug, Movectro (cladribine). The negative opinion was issue on 23 September 2010.

Roche Holding AG and its US partner, ImmunoGen Inc, said that interim results from a Phase 2 study of their antibody-drug conjugate, trastuzumab-DM1, showed a better response rate in women with metastatic breast cancer, than with a comparator.

At the request of the US Food and Drug Administration, Abbott Laboratories Inc has agreed to withdraw its obesity drug, Meridia (sibutramine), from the US market because of clinical trial data indicating an increased cardiovascular risk.

MorphoSys AG has reached out to synthetic biology in order to retain a lead in the fast-moving therapeutic antibody business.