News

Evotec AG has entered into a three-year collaboration pact with Novartis AG to develop small molecule therapies.

An appeals body of the European Patent Office has rejected on morality grounds a controversial  stem cell patent application from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) relating to a method for obtaining embryonic stem cell cultures from primates.

Many small companies in the biotech arena are worried about running out of cash to fund their research programmes because of the liquidity problems in the international banking system. Biopharmaceutical companies have their own anxieties as demonstrated by what appears to be a secular increase in the number of very expensive failures in late-stage clinical tests. However, an option deal might be a way of marrying the disparate needs of little pharma and big pharma. Here is an example of how option strategy works in practice.

Privately-owned Cellzome Inc is to receive a grant of up to €3.85 million from the German government. Spread over five years, the grant will enable Cellzome’s Heidelberg unit to expand its proteomics platform for the discovery and development of new drugs.

Novartis AG has increased its exploratory pipeline of new molecular entities (NMEs) and within that group, it is allocating more resource to biologics. The Swiss multinational gave an update on its research and development activities on 19 November 2008 at which time it highlighted gains in overall productivity

A decision by the European Patent Office’s (EPO) Opposition Division to revoke a patent for diagnosing susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancer has been overturned by the EPO’s Technical Board of Appeal. However, the scope of the restored patent held by Myriad Genetics Inc has been reduced.

Pfizer Ltd has withdrawn its application to the European Medicines Agency to switch the classification of Viagra (sildenafil) from a prescription-only medicine to an over-the-counter medicine.

The European Medicines Agency has recommended that six new medicines be given marketing authorisations for the European Union.

Sanofi-Aventis Pharma SA has withdrawn its application to extend the indication for its cancer treatment, docetaxel, following questions from the European Medicines Agency about the design of the clinical trial used to support the proposed new use.

The European Medicines Agency has recommended that the marketing authorisation for Ionsys (fentanyl hydrochloride), an opioid analgesic produced by Janssen-Cilag International NV, be suspended because of a defect in the delivery system that could result in patients being overdosed. Janssen-Cilag is an affiliate of Johnson & Johnson.