News

The neuroscience specialist H. Lundbeck A/S has raised its profit forecast for 2018 on the back of revenue and earnings gains in the first nine months and a significant improvement in its operating margin.

“Lundbeck remains on track to deliver the best-ever financial results, creating the foundation to work to strengthen the pipeline for future growth,” said Deborah Dunsire, the company’s new chief executive. Dr Dunsire joined Lundbeck on 1 September having previously managed biopharmaceutical companies in the areas of oncology and central nervous system disorders.

Curetis NV’s proposed private placement, intended to raise up to €18.4 million, has attracted less than half this amount, or €8.9 million, from investors. As a result, the molecular diagnostics company said it plans to reassess its strategic priorities.

This will entail re-evaluating funding for the commercialisation of Unyvero, a cartridge-based diagnostic for detecting pathogens and antimicrobial resistance markers in infectious disease indications; its European commercialisation activities, working capital requirements and research and development programmes.

Sales of new products at AstraZeneca Plc increased faster, and generated more revenue than legacy medicines in the third quarter and 2018 first nine months, leading the UK company to declare it had reached a turning point on the way towards sustainable growth.

“This is the start of a period of sustained growth in the years to come,” Pascal Soriot, the chief executive, told journalists during a quarterly news conference on 8 November. He confirmed the company’s forecast for a low single-digit percentage increase in product sales this year.

MorphoSys AG expects revenue this year to be on the upper end of a range announced in August, while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) will show a loss, but smaller than that reported for 2017. This follows higher third quarter sales which were boosted by a €47.5 million upfront payment from Novartis for rights to a candidate drug for atopic dermatitis.

The European institutions are a fertile source of funding for small and medium-sized life science enterprises, (SMEs), but gaining access to this capital requires a different set of skills than pitching for venture capital. This was one of the conclusions of a discussion at the BioEurope conference in Copenhagen on 6 November which featured presentations by Laszlo Helmle of the European Commission; Pierre Meulien of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and Auvo Kaikkonen of the European Investment Bank.

SwedenBIO, which represents more than 250 companies in the life science sector in Sweden, is stepping up efforts to introduce biopharma and medical technology companies to US investors as the sector becomes increasingly important to the national economy.

Targovax ASA has reconfigured its portfolio to put priority on the development of a candidate oncolytic virus for cancer which has shown promising early clinical results in mesothelioma and checkpoint inhibitor refractory melanoma.

The trial results for ONCOS-102, the oncolytic virus, were highlighted in the Norwegian company’s financial report for the third quarter, which showed a cash balance of NOK 173 million (€18.2 million) on 30 September, down from NOK 261.6 million on 31 December 2017.

In line with previously announced plans to diversify its portfolio, Novo Nordisk A/S has entered into a collaboration with a university spin-out, Embark Biotech ApS, to discover new treatments for obesity and associated metabolic pathologies.

A European research consortium in which Plasticell Ltd is a partner organisation has won a €3.7 million award from the EU to create cellular models of a group of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, which result from the acute or progressive loss of cells in the brain. The goal is to produce patient-specific human neural models in test tubes, microchips or model organisms that can be used to discover new therapies.

Orchard Therapeutics Ltd took the next step in its quest to become a global gene therapy company on 31 October with an initial public offering on Nasdaq which is expected to raise $200 million. Founded in 2015, the company has already generated nearly $300 million in venture capital.

The IPO consists of 14,285,715 American Depositary Shares representing 14,285,715 ordinary shares at a price of $14 per ADS before underwriting discounts and commissions. The offering is expected to close on 2 November.