News

The UK Department of Health has reached an agreement with the pharmaceutical industry to change the way in which drugs are priced and supplied to the National Health Service (NHS).

Paolo Macchiarini, head of thoracic surgery at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Spain and colleagues have reported the results of a trachea transplant into a woman with tuberculosis using tissue from a donor which was repopulated with stem and epithelial cells from the recipient. This is understood to be the first ever trachea transplant and the first ever tissue transplant to be performed without the use of immunosuppressive drugs.

Evotec AG has raised its forecast for revenue in 2008 on the basis of higher-than-expected income from its research collaborations.

The European Commission is proposing to ban the use of great apes in scientific research in a move to tighten up the regulation of animal studies.

GlaxoSmithKline has told stock exchanges in Switzerland and the UK that it has increased its shareholding in Addex Pharmaceuticals Ltd to at least 5% of the company’s outstanding capital. The purchases were made by GSK’s investment arm, SR One Ltd, and follow earlier incremental buying in September, 2008.

JADO Technologies GmbH, a closely-held German company specialising in a new type of lipid technology, has raised €3.9 million in a series B financing led by the Berlin-based Peppermint Financial Partners.

MediGene AG is expecting to conclude a strategic partnership in 2009 for its treatment for pancreatic cancer, EndoTAG-1. The forecast is contained in the company’s financial report for the first nine months of 2008, which was issued on 7 November.

The French biopharmaceutical company, Innate Pharma SA, reported a 16% increase in revenue for the first nine months of 2008 compared with a year earlier, largely due to income from its strategic partnership with Novo Nordisk A/S.

Sanofi-aventis has stopped all clinical trials of Acomplia (rimonabant), which until recently had been sold on 32 markets around the world as a treatment for obesity. The trials were being conducted in order to investigate new indications for the drug in diabetes and heart disease.

Sygnis Pharma AG has raised about €18.3 million with new equity under a long-standing contractual agreement with its two principal shareholders, dievini Hopp BioTech holding GmbH & Co. KG and BASF SE, which will own respectively 36% and 13% of the company.