News

GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Pfizer Inc have announced plans to put their assets in the area of HIV medicine into a new company that will concentrate on research and development in this disease area

Pharming Group NV is the latest European company to enter into an equity funding agreement with YA Global of the US giving it an option to issue up to a total of €20 million in Pharming shares at any time during the next 36 months.

After refocusing its business on the therapeutic areas of oncology and immunology, MediGene now expects to conclude a development and marketing partnership in 2009 for its product for pancreatic cancer, EndoTAG-1.

The UK publicly-funded Medical Research Council has announced the setting up of a new centre in London that will produce ‘drug-like’ molecules with the potential to become therapies. The centre will have an initial operating budget of £6 million.

The European Medicines Agency and Health Canada have fleshed out the details of a confidentiality agreement under which the agencies can exchange confidential information about pending legislation and licensing applications from companies.

Silence Therapeutics Plc has applied to the German regulator to bring its short-interfering RNA molecule (siRNA) for solid tumours into a first-in-man study. If approved, it would be the company’s first internal candidate in the clinic.

Pfizer Inc plans to reorganise its research business once its takeover of Wyeth is complete. Research into new small-molecule drugs will be carried out in one unit and research into biologics and vaccines in another, the company announced.

Wilex AG said its recent strategic alliance with UCB Pharma SA has expanded its oncology portfolio and strengthened its financial position. The deal was completed in the first quarter of 2009.

Ark Therapeutics Group Plc has issued the first update of the results of a Phase 3 trial of its gene therapy, Cerepro. The product is currently under review at the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of operable malignant glioma.

Active Biotech AB, a Swedish biotech company with five drug projects under clinical development, has announced details of its SEK 256 million (€23.8 million) rights issue scheduled for completion on 10 June 2009.