The Roche group was able to grow net income faster than sales in 2016 on the back of a series of new pharmaceutical product launches that included Tecentriq (atezolizumab), its first cancer immunotherapy. Tecentriq is a PD-L1 inhibitor for both bladder and lung cancer.
The US law firm, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, has filed a class action suit against Sanofi SA, Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly and Company alleging that they have used increasingly wider discounts from the list price of their analogue insulins to gain favour with pharmacy benefit managers and health insurers and thereby gained market share.
Novo Nordisk A/S has turned to the University of Oxford for support in developing new approaches to treat Type 2 diabetes, a disease that affects nearly 9% of the global population. While Novo has a dominant global market position in the field, it is seeking to discover new treatments for people living with the disease and its complications.
Heptares Therapeutics has launched a research partnership with the University of Cambridge to use its discovery platform targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to identify new drugs for cardiovascular disease.
Early clinical data for a therapeutic protein developed by Ablnyx NV to treat patients with psoriasis has demonstrated that the treatment is safe, with some evidence of a reduction in disease activity. The treatment targets the interleukin-17 (IL-17) pathway.
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.