News

Pieris AG, a closely-held German company that is developing proteins similar to monoclonal antibodies, has raised €25 million through a series B placement of new shares.

The German drug developer, 4SC AG, said it has advanced negotiations with a number of pharmaceutical companies about licensing out its lead product for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, SC12267.

Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A. expects to increase spending on research and development in 2008 as its two lead products, safinamide and ralfinamide, progress through the clinic, and it absorbs the pipeline of Hunter-Fleming, its recent UK acquisition.

GPC Biotech AG has confirmed that its cash reserves are sufficient to cover about three years of business operations following a regulatory setback in 2007 that affected its lead cancer product, satraplatin.  On 31 December 2007, cash and cash equivalents amounted to €65.2 million, which is enough to cover development of the company’s most promising oncology programmes, GPC said in a statement on 27 March 2008.

The decision of 3i, one of Britain’s largest private equity firms, to stop investing in start-ups and early-stage companies will reduce the financing options for a number of small companies. But the amount of money involved is relatively small compared with 3i’s total assets under management, the company said.

Pharming Group NV said it will apply to market its human protein, Rhucin, in Turkey as part of a broader strategy to tap markets outside the European Union following the European Medicine Agency’s refusal to overturn a negative opinion on its marketing authorisation application for the product.

Silence Therapeutics Plc has concluded a second collaboration with AstraZeneca in the field of RNA interference, a relatively new technology which is being investigated for the treatment of a number of major diseases.

Share prices of the Pharming Group NV fell 25.6% after a committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) reissued a negative opinion of its lead drug candidate, Rhucin, a treatment for hereditary angioedema (HAE).

Shares of ReNeuron Group Plc fell 2.25 pence or 16.4% to 11.50 pence on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) following the company’s disclosure that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has once again delayed its Phase 1 clinical study of its stem-cell therapy for patients with stroke, ReN001.

The European Medicines Agency expects to see an increase in marketing-authorisation applications in 2008 after strong growth in 2007.