News

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new indication for the cancer drug, Sprycel (dasatinib), enabling it to be administered to patients with a rare blood cancer when it is first diagnosed.

Novo Nordisk A/S, the Danish specialist in diabetes products, raised its guidance for 2010 sales and earnings following strong results for the third quarter.

Despite revenue and profit declines in the 2010 third quarter, AstraZeneca Plc has confirmed that core earnings per share for the year as a whole should show an increase from 2009. Restructuring and legal costs depressed the Q3 results.

The UK drug-device company, Biocompatibles International Plc, is in advanced talks with another party which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company. The talks were disclosed on 28 October to the London Stock Exchange.

Index Ventures, the Geneva-based venture capital company, is providing the initial funding of €1.5 million for a company that has been set up to exploit a new technology for treating serious brain diseases.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has announced plans to invest $60 million over three years in bispecific antibody technology which has been developed by the US, venture capital-backed biotechnology company, MacroGenics Inc.

Elan Plc said that it has developed an assay that appears to identify those multiple sclerosis patients on Tysabri (natalizumab) who are at risk of developing the rare brain disease, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).

Genmab A/S has announced further plans to reduce its headcount and generate savings for the ongoing development of its therapeutic antibody programmes. This follows the launch of a new strategy in September under new management.

H. Lundbeck A/S has signalled its confidence in the experimental stroke treatment, desmoteplase, by increasing the size of two ongoing Phase 3 trials of the drug and committing money to the development of possible second-generation compounds.

The UK government has launched two new life science clusters that will bring experts from industry, the academic community and the National Health Service together to do early-stage drug development.