News

Vernalis Plc of the UK announced plans to raise £22.1 million in a fully underwritten share issue and separate plans for a 20-1 reverse split of its outstanding shares.

Oxford BioMedica Plc is taking back the rights to its therapeutic vaccine for renal cancer from sanofi-aventis. At the same time, it is entering into a new agreement with the French company to develop gene-based treatments for four eye diseases.

MorphoSys AG, the German antibody producer, announced a rise in revenue and profits in the first 2009 quarter and reconfirmed its projections for the year as a whole.

The French state agency, Oseo Innovation, has awarded €1.8 million to a privately-held molecular diagnostics company in Nantes to support a biomarker project aimed at predicting rejections of kidney transplants.

Imperial Innovations Group Plc, reported a profit of £1.3 million for the half year ended 31 January 2009 compared with a year-earlier loss of £2.2 million. This was despite a fall in the value of its quoted company holdings.

ProtAffin AG of Austria has raised €14.1 million in a Series B round which will be used to complete pre-clinical development and Phase 1 testing of a new anti-inflammatory compound. The round was co-led by Atlas Venture and SR One Ltd.

Merck & Co has become the latest big pharmaceutical company to announce plans to source a significant part of its biomedical research programmes from outside the company.

The European Medicines Agency has given positive opinions for four medicines, one of which is AstraZeneca’s Iressa (gefitinib), a targeted treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. The positive opinion follows an earlier application withdrawal.

Pfizer Inc has announced plans to fund research into stem cell-based therapies for macular degeneration and other retinal diseases at University College London (UCL).

Merck & Co has announced plans to invest in a combination monoclonal antibody treatment which is being investigated for Clostridium difficile infection, the primary cause of infectious diarrhea in hospitalized elderly patients.