Merck Inc has entered into a licensing deal with the Chinese pharmaceutical group Hansoh Pharma to gain access to a preclinical obesity asset, bringing it into a field currently dominated by Eli Lilly and Co and Novo Nordisk A/S. The asset, HS-10535, is an oral small molecule glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist.
A candidate drug for early-stage Parkinson’s disease has failed to show efficacy at Phase 2a despite having demonstrated promise in earlier studies, the co-developer UCB SA announced on 16 December. The drug, minzasolmin, is a small molecule compound designed to inhibit alpha-synuclein misfolding in the brain. Alpha-synuclein is a normal neuronal protein that regulates synaptic vesicle trafficking. However in Parkinson’s disease it misfolds and aggregates into toxic fibrils.
New York Life Investments, a US money manager and its European affiliate Candriam, have entered a partnership under which New York Life, through its affiliate network, will take a 40% minority stake in Andera Partners, the Paris-based investment group. The goal is to jointly expand their pool of clients. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Andera manages €4.3 billion in assets for institutional and private investors. New York Life has a much deeper portfolio with assets under management of $750 billion.
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