Novartis said that Zortress (everolimus) has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration to help adult patients with kidney transplants keep the transplanted organ. The drug is already approved as an immunosuppressant and a cancer drug.
After a decade of above-average sales growth, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH expects revenue will be flat in 2010, as it loses patent protection for some important drugs. In the current year, it plans to invest heavily in R&D which will impact on income.
Elan Corporation Plc reported an operating profit of $36.2 million for the first quarter of 2010 after an operating loss a year earlier, driven by strong sales of its multiple sclerosis drug, Tysabri (natalizumab), and a reduction in expenses.
Silence Therapeutics Plc said that it has reached an agreement with AstraZeneca Plc to extend for one year their collaboration to develop new delivery technologies for RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics. Financial terms were not disclosed.
New products represented 16% of Novartis’s net sales of $12.1 billion in the first quarter of 2010, according to the Swiss company’s first quarter report released on 20 April 2010.
Elan Corporation Plc said that it is exploring the possibility of dividing its operations into two separate, publicly-listed companies. They would comprise a drug technology business and a neurology drug development business.
Genmab A/S is set to receive DKK 87 million ($16 million) from GlaxoSmithKline Plc following the conditional approval in Europe of Arzerra (ofatumumab), its treatment for refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).
Celgene Corp has agreed to pay the privately-held Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc of Cambridge, Massachusetts $130 million upfront, including an equity investment, for access to Agios’s cancer metabolism research platform.
The European Medicines Agency said that Novartis Europharm Ltd has withdrawn its marketing authorisation application for a drug to treat chronic hepatitis C virus infection. The product is Joulferon (albinterferon alpha-2b).
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new treatment option for Tarceva (erlotinib) for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. This follows a positive opinion for the same indication from the EMA.