News

Shire Plc, the British specialty pharmaceutical company, has made an agreed bid to acquire all of the Frankfurt-listed shares of Jerini Ag for €328 million. In a conference call on 3 July 2008, Shire’s chief executive, Angus Russell, said the acquisition will add Jerini’s hereditary angioedema (HAE) product, Firazyr (icatibant acetate), to its portfolio of drugs for symptomatic rare disorders administered by specialist physicians. Firazyr was given a positive opinion by the European Medicine Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use in April 2008 and is awaiting final approval by the European Commission.

The Danish vaccine producer, Bavarian Nordic A/S, has announced a lawsuit against Oxford BioMedica of the UK alleging infringement of three of its US patents for a viral vector used in Bavarian Nordic’s smallpox vaccine.

A famine-breaking initial public offering (IPO) of the French diagnostic company, Ipsogen SA, has held up well despite the general weakness of stock markets.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has said that new or strengthened warnings should be included in the product information for three groups of marketed pharmaceutical products: epoetin-containing medicines, ergot-derived dopamine agonists and etoricoxib-containing medicines.

The Edinburgh-based drug development company, Ardana Plc, has entered into voluntary administration after exhausting its cash reserves.

The European Medicines Agency's (EMEA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended that the following drugs be given a marketing authorisation, subject to confirmation by the European Commission.

Pharmexa A/S, the Danish company that is developing cancer vaccines, has replaced its chief executive officer while announcing a further 40% staff reduction in addition to a 20% staff cut in February 2008.

Pharmaceutical companies that seek out and comply with scientific advice offered by the European Medicines Agency are more likely to receive positive opinions on their marketing authorization applications than those that do not, according to statistics released by the EMEA.

Sygnis Pharma Ag said it expects its net loss to increase from €6.3 in the year ended March 2008 to €12 million in 2009 as it prepares for Phase 2b efficacy trials of AX200, its candidate for treating stroke.

The European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration plan to broaden the scope of a five-year old agreement which enables them to share confidential information submitted to them by pharmaceutical companies.