News

The European Commission has proposed to shorten the settlement period for securities such as shares and bonds from two days to one in a move to increase liquidity on its capital markets. If approved, the measure would take effect on 11 October 2027. Member states of the union currently manage securities on national markets in their own jurisdictions. But there is growing pressure from the private sector to consolidate securities trading on a single European market.

A new EU regulation for the conduct of clinical trials in the EU took effect on 31 January after a long period of discussion. A key feature of the new legislation is the introduction of a single authorisation procedure for all trials instead of the earlier multiple procedures. Regulation 536/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council replaces Directive 2001/20/EC. As a Regulation it will apply directly to all member states of the union. 

Novartis is to pay up to $3.1 billion to take full control of Anthos Therapeutics Inc, a Boston, US based company that it helped launch with Blackstone Life Sciences in 2019 to develop an asset for a cardiovascular disease. The company has a product in Phase 3 that was in-licensed from Novartis and is now being developed to prevent stroke and systemic embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation. Novartis had a minority stake in Anthos but will now take full control.

Novartis reported a double digit increase in operating profit in 2024 and through higher sales and lower impairments, achieved a profit margin of 28.9% for the year. The goal is to continue this margin expansion during the next 12 months, in addition to raising sales by a mid-to high-single digit percentage, Vas Narasimhan, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement issued on 31 January. Novartis’ 2024 results were the first full-year figures for the company since the spin-out of Sandoz, its generics and biosimilar business in October 2023.

With a focus on a 2030 revenue target, AstraZeneca Plc presented 2024 financial results on 6 February which exceeded expectations but also threw up some risks. Group revenue for 2024 was $54.1 billion, up by 18% at actual exchange rates and by 21% at constant rates, buoyed by double-digit increases across the portfolio. This included sales of drugs for cancer, cardiovascular, renal, metabolic, and respiratory diseases as well as for rare conditions.

GSK Plc has upgraded its forecast for long-term growth following a year in which specialty medicines for oncology and HIV delivered double-digit increases in sales. At the end of 2024 the company had 19 new products in Phase 3 or registration. Emma Walmsley, the chief executive, told journalists on 5 February that the company now expects to achieve more than £40 billion in sales by 2031, up from the company’s previous forecast of £38 billion. At the same time, GSK announced plans to buy back £2 billion of its shares over the next 18 months.

Sanofi SA increased its spending on research and development in 2024 as it moved into new technologies and advanced its position in diabetes in order to strengthen its position as a proprietary drug producer. This is ahead of the spin-out of its consumer healthcare business Opella which is expected to take place, at the earliest, in the second quarter. The company’s R&D spend in 2024 was €7.4 billion, up by more than 14% from a year earlier and represented 18% of sales.

A German biotech company with genome editing technology has raised €8 million in seed financing to progress a nuclease-based product for cancer. Akribion Therapeutics GmbH is a 2024 spin-out of the industrial company BRAIN Biotech AG which supplies enzymes and proteins to the biotech industry. Akribion has in-licensed a nuclease from BRAIN which it says has promise for treating cancers. Its lead product will be developed for HPV-induced oropharyngeal head and neck cancer.

The Roche Group launched two new medicines in 2024 and expanded its portfolio with the acquisition in November of Poseida Therapeutics Inc, a developer of allogeneic cell therapies. The deal, valued at $1.5 billion, capped a year of expansion for the Swiss company which grew sales by 3% in Swiss francs and by 7% at constant exchange rates. This was despite the loss of exclusivity for six legacy medicines which saw a sales decline of CHF 1 billion.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new non-opioid treatment for pain that targets a signalling pathway in the peripheral nervous system before pain signals reach the brain. The drug, Journavx (suzetrigine), is the first drug in a new class of medicines for the treatment of moderate to severe acute pain arising from trauma or surgery. Typically, these cases may be treated with prescription opioids.