Novartis has reached an agreement with Roche to sell its minority stake in the company in order to raise money for its proprietary medicines. The announcement, on 4 November, follows Novartis’ launch of a strategic review of its Sandoz generics unit which could result in a divestiture. The sale of shares in Roche is expected to generate $20.7 billion based on a price of $388.99 per share for 53.3 million bearer shares.
Valneva SE, the France-based vaccine company, has raised $102 million in a global share offering to specialised investors which included an offering of American Depositary Shares (ADSs) in the US and a private share placement in Europe and elsewhere. The proceeds are expected to be used for the company’s vaccine portfolio which includes a candidate Covid-19 vaccine. Valneva’s ordinary shares are listed on Euronext Paris, and its ADSs trade on Nasdaq.
Addex Therapeutics Ltd advanced its clinical portfolio in the three months to 30 September bringing its lead product dipraglurant a step closer to registration for patients suffering from dyskinesia associated with the use of levodopa to treat Parkinson’s disease. Dipraglurant is a small molecule allosteric modulator which is currently in a Phase 2b/3 pivotal study. Altogether, the company has three programmes in the clinic in addition to a research collaboration with Indivior Plc into treatments for addiction disorders.
Sanofi SA had net sales of €10.4 billion in the third quarter, up by 10% from a year earlier, and lifted by strong demand for Dupixent, the anti-inflammatory drug jointly developed with Regeneron Inc. Dupixent’s sales were €1.4 billion, or 13% of the company’s total turnover. The quarter also featured strong demand for Kevzara in rheumatoid arthritis, Libtayo in oncology, and Sarclisa in muliple myeloma.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has declared an unchanged dividend of 19 pence per share for the third quarter after delivering increases in both turnover and operating profit. Earnings per share at constant exchange rates are expected to decline by 2% to 4% for the year as a whole – an improvement over the company’s earlier forecast of a decline in the mid-to-high single digit range. The earnings per share forecast excludes impairments and the amortisation of intangible assets.
Novartis has started a strategic review of its Sandoz generics division following a further sales decline in the third quarter. Sandoz’s sales were down by 1% in the quarter on weak retail demand and price competition for its generic medicines and biosimilars. Announcing the review on 26 October, the company said “options range from retaining the business to separation.”
An experimental breast cancer treatment for patients with estrogen receptor positive and HER2 negative breast cancer has met the primary endpoint in a Phase 3 trial paving the way for regulatory submissions in the US and Europe in 2022, the developers Menarini Group and Radius Health Inc, announced on 20 October.
The US Food and Drug Administration has amended the emergency approvals for three Covid-19 vaccine booster shots to make them available to more people. At the same time, the agency said a booster shot from any of the approved vaccines may be administered to people whose first vaccination was with a different product.
“A single booster dose of any of the available Covid-19 vaccines may be administered as a heterologous booster dose following completion of primary vaccination with a different available Covid-19 vaccine,” the agency said on 20 October.
Janssen Biotech Inc has expanded its European partnerships with a new bispecific antibody deal – this time with F-star Therapeutics Ltd of the UK. Janssen already has projects underway using bispecific technology from Genmab A/S. The deal with F-star will explore new antibody therapeutics that are both bispecific and tetravalent, meaning they simultaneously target immune and tumour cells whilst having two additional sites for antigen binding.
The Roche Group has raised its sales forecast for 2021 following a strong performance of its diagnostics division in the first nine months of the year. While diagnostics account for just 29% of group turnover, they are an important source innovation.