News

Phytopharm Plc, which develops medicinal products from plants, is to raise £8.6 million through a placing and open offer of shares on the London Stock Exchange.

MorphoSys AG said that it expects revenue to grow to between €73 and €77 million this year from €62 million in 2007 on continued demand for antibodies from its proprietary Human Combinatorial Antibody Library (HuCAL). Operating profit is expected to be in a range of €9 to €11 million, compared with €7 million in 2007.

Addex Pharmaceuticals Ltd said that it has achieved its first preclinical milestone in a licensing agreement with the Merck & Co affiliate, Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Ltd (MSD), for a candidate drug for Parkinson’s disease and other undisclosed indications, triggering a payment of $250,000.

MorphoSys AG has reached a licensing agreement with the St Louis Missouri-based life science company, Sigma-Aldrich under which the German company will develop and qualify antibodies from its proprietary antibody library against targets supplied by Sigma-Aldrich. Financial details were not disclosed.

Stem Cell Sciences Plc (SCS), which provides researchers with stem cell culture media, said its revenue from ordinary activities declined by 20% to £593,000 in 2007 from £742,000 in 2006 while its operating loss from ordinary activities rose to £3,572,000 from £2,608,000.

Four new medicinal products and four biosimilar products are being recommended for licensing in Europe by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). The agency’s recommendations will be referred to the European Commission which has responsibility for issuing marketing authorisations.

The European Medicines Agency has recommended approval of a ‘pre-pandemic’ vaccine that will generate an immune response to the ‘bird flu’ virus, H5N1 in case it evolves into a pandemic human influenza.

GPC Biotech AG has announced a third round of job cuts and a reshaping of its development activity in order to make its cash reserves cover three years of operating expenses.

Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd has decided to withdraw its application to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for an extended indication for its orphan product, Zavesca (miglustat).

Vernalis Plc is reorganising its management, more than halving its workforce, closing a clinical development site in Canada and divesting one of its marketed products in order to conserve cash in the wake of a regulatory setback for its migraine product, Frova (frovatriptan succinate).