The Swiss developer of therapeutic vaccines, Cytos Biotechnology AG, has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Pfizer Vaccines LLC to research and commercialise novel vaccines against a number of human diseases. The disease targets were not disclosed.
The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) is investigating two reports of a rare brain infection in patients who have been treated with the multiple-sclerosis drug, Tysabri (natalizumab).
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.