News

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) will acquire new responsibilities for making sure that drugs launched on the European market are safe under legislation initiated by the European Commission.

The international investment group, Abingworth, has raised an additional £84 million to invest in life science companies, bringing the total funds in its life science vehicle, Abingworth Bioventures V LP, up to £392 million.

MorphoSys AG said that it will be offering stockholders three new shares for every one held as part of a previously-authorised stock split. The new shares will trade on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange from 23 December 2008.

Genmab A/S has announced an amendment to its commercialisation deal with GlaxoSmithKline for ofatumumab, effectively ending its right to co-promote the drug in the US and the Nordic area.

Celtic Pharma Holdings Advisors LLP (CPHA) has launched a new fund that will invest in biotech companies with early stage products at a time when many venture capital companies have shifted their attention to companies with late-stage products.

A London-based biopharmaceutical company with an early clinical-stage obesity product has been bought by Wyeth of the US in a deal valued at up to £100 million.

Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic A/S has raised its forecast for revenue in 2008 following higher than expected income from two contracts which it holds with the US National Institutes of Health for the production of a new smallpox vaccine.

OncoMethylome Sciences SA is to raise about €8.4 million with a private equity placement among three institutions, according to an announcement on 16 December 2008.

Austria’s Intercell AG said it plans to launch its new vaccine against Japanese encephalitis in Europe in early 2009 following receipt of a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.

Cosmo Pharmaceuticals SpA, an Italian company specialising in developing and manufacturing treatments for gastro-intestinal diseases, has licensed two of its advanced drug candidates to Santarus Inc. of the United States in a deal that will leave Cosmo with a 10.5% holding in Santarus and with the possibility of acquiring more shares.