News

Oxford BioMedica Plc has confirmed that it received an unsolicited bid from a US diagnostics company following a rise in its share price on the London Stock Exchange by about 25%.

Novozymes A/S, which produces enzymes and micro-organisms for industrial use, saw sales and profits increase in the 2008 first half on the back of strong demand for all of its business segments except biopharmaceuticals.

Belgium’s Galapagos NV, which specialises in developing drugs for bone and joint diseases, expects to file an investigational new drug application (IND) by the end of 2008 for Nanocort, a liposome-formulation of the corticosteroid, prednisolone. The drug is being developed to treat flares in rheumatoid arthritis.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology, based in Budapest, Hungary, has appointed its first 18-person governing board. The institute is a new European Union organisation that will promote new technologies in the physical, social and life sciences.

In response to questions about why its share price has been rising sharply, Protherics Plc said its board is considering approaches from a number of parties interested in acquiring the company but that no formal offers have been made.

A special committee of the Board of Directors of Genentech Inc. has turned down a  bid from its controlling shareholder, Roche of Switzerland, to buy the shares that it does not already own in the company for $43.7 billion.

GPC Biotech AG is in merger and acquisition talks with a number of public and private oncology-focused companies following the failure of its cancer drug, satraplatin, to win regulatory support in Europe and the US.

Sygnis Pharma AG reported revenue of €0.1 million in its first fiscal quarter ended June 2008, unchanged from a year earlier, while its net loss for the quarter widened to €1.7 million from €1.4 million.

Nearly a year ago, Paion AG of Germany was struggling to overcome disappointing Phase 3 trial results for its lead compound for stroke, desmoteplase. The compound is a genetically engineered version of a clot-dissolving enzyme found in the saliva of the vampire bat. In preclinical and early human studies, the compound had shown considerable therapeutic promise. But hopes for the drug were dashed in the spring of 2007 when the Phase 3 study failed to show efficacy compared with placebo. As desmoteplase was Paion’s main product, the trial failure left the company dangerously exposed. In less than 12 months, however, Paion negotiated a new licensing deal for desmoteplase, and acquired a small UK company that specialises in treatments for central nervous system disorders. As a result, it has both strengthened its cash position and broadened its drug portfolio.

Genmab A/S, a specialist in creating and developing fully human, monoclonal antibodies for treating serious diseases, is nearing its goal of getting its first  antibody product onto the market since the company was founded in February 1999.