Patrick Vallance, head of research and development at GlaxoSmithKline Plc, is to join the UK government as chief scientific adviser at the end of March 2018. The appointment comes as the UK negotiates its departure from the European Union.
AstraZeneca Plc has given a slightly more optimistic forecast for the bottom line this year and expressed confidence about a return to growth, as the last of its legacy products loses patent protection in Europe. The company still expects a decline in core earnings per share, but the fall is expected to be closer to 10% than to a mid-teen percentage decline.
Shares of H. Lundbeck A/S, which makes drugs for treating disorders of the central nervous system, closed down 7.3% on 8 November despite the release of favourable results for the third quarter and improved guidance for the year. A concern is the company’s transition to new management.
Evotec AG, which provides discovery and development services to other pharmaceutical companies, continued to grow rapidly in the third quarter. This time the expansion was helped by the acquisition of Aptuit LLC, a US-based company that provides similar services, and the earlier takeover of Cyprotex Plc, a specialist UK contract research organisation.
MorphoSys AG delivered a ‘wait for the next quarter’ message as its third quarter loss before interest and taxes (EBIT) widened by 79% to €23.5 million despite a 20% increase in revenue. The German antibody developer’s revenue totalled €15 million but a 54% rise in research and development expenses to €34.1 million led to the large increase in the EBIT loss.
Switzerland-based NousCom AG, which is developing cancer vaccines, has completed a €42 million Series B financing round led by new investor Abingworth, along with 5AM Ventures. The funds will be used to advance two candidate neoantigen vaccines.
In just two weeks, European life science companies have tapped the global capital markets for more than $900 million, taking advantage of buoyant stock prices and a favourable global economy. Funds have been raised by clinical stage companies developing medical therapeutics and devices, as well as by one venture capital company, BioGeneration Ventures. BioGeneration specialises in seed funding for European start-ups.
Sanofi SA reported higher revenue from its multiple sclerosis drugs and paediatric vaccines in the third quarter, which helped offset a decline in US sales of diabetes products. It has downgraded its forecast for diabetes products while warning of an accelerated decline in the fourth quarter.
Novo Nordisk A/S reported a 3.5% decline in sales and a 3% drop in operating profit in the third quarter as US trading conditions for insulin and biopharmaceutical products remained difficult. However over nine months there was growth, prompting the company to raise its full-year forecast.
The US Food and Drug Administration has granted an accelerated approval to Calquence (acalabrutinib), a new kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adults with mantle cell lymphoma, a rare and fast-growing type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.