Johnson & Johnson Inc is making an agreed offer to buy Actelion Ltd for $30 billion in a transaction that will have tax and portfolio benefits for it while providing money for the launch of a new Switzerland-based R&D start-up to be led by Actelion’s current management.
Novartis AG continued its programme of cutting costs and purchasing companies or products to bolster its pipeline in 2016, but this was not enough to stem an annual and fourth quarter decline in sales and operating profit. Moreover, little change is expected for 2017.
Ingmar Hoerr, chief executive of CureVac AG, has been appointed as one of 15 members of a new group that will advise the European Commission on strengthening the environment for research and innovation in the European Union.
A proposed liberalisation of rules that govern financial transactions in the European Union is the subject of a public consultation that started on 20 January and will continue until 17 March. The consultation is being managed by the European Commission.
(The following editorial appears in the January 2017 edition of MedNous) Yes, there are plenty of geopolitical risks going into 2017, but the biopharma industry is entering the New Year with plenty of cash and good prospects for innovation. In this issue we look at some recent developments.
Four companies with rights to intellectual property (IP) generated by Emmanuelle Charpentier and colleagues for the gene editing technology CRISPR/Cas9 have reached an agreement under which rights to the technology given by one member of the group will mean consent from the others.
Germany-based Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH has secured its most significant collaboration to date with the signing of a research and licencing agreement with Amgen Inc to develop T cell engaging bispecific immunotherapies targeting multiple cancers.
Macrophage Pharma Ltd, a two-year old company set up to advance small molecule drugs targeting tumour-associated macrophages, has raised £9 million in Series A finance from specialist oncology investors.
Eternygen GmbH, a privately owned company based in Berlin, has raised €8 million in Series A financing to support the research and development of sodium coupled citrate transporter inhibitors for the potential treatment of a variety of metabolic diseases.
With the completion of a purchase and a sale, Medivir AB has transformed itself into a pure product development company with 75% of its research budget allocated to clinical trials instead of 40% previously.