Medherant Ltd, a spin out of the University of Warwick, has raised follow-on capital of £250,000 from the investment group Mercia Fund Management to continue development of a transparent adhesive patch that can deliver prolonged doses of a drug directly through the skin.
BTG Ltd, which supplies sophisticated equipment to the hospital market, is acquiring Galil Medical Inc, a vendor of cryoablation equipment for destroying diseased tissue by freezing it. The consideration will be $84.5 million in cash and future milestone and regulatory payments of up to $25.5 million.
A Phase 2b trial of elsiglutide, a peptide drug designed to prevent diarrhoea in patients undergoing chemotherapy, has failed to meet its primary endpoint even though there was some evidence of patient benefit.
Ergomed Plc, a listed UK clinical-trial services organisation, is raising between £9 and £13 million with a share placement that will help finance the takeover of Haemostatix Ltd, which is developing products for inducing rapid blood clotting.
The European Medicines Agency is recommending that the Roche medicine Gazyvaro (obinutuzumab) be used to treat patients with follicular lymphoma, in addition to its approved indication for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).
A review of the safety of Zydelig (idelalisib) as a combination cancer agent is ongoing, with a report expected to be made to the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) in June, according to the European Medicines Agency.
Ablynx NV has reported positive top line results from a first-in-infant study of its therapeutic protein for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a leading cause of lower respiratory tract disease in infants and young children. The results were reported on 3 May.
Wilson Therapeutics AB, a Swedish company owned by venture capital firms, is to make an initial public offering of its shares on Nasdaq Stockholm in order to take the company’s copper removal product for Wilson’s disease through Phase 3 and registration and to the market by 2020.
MorphoSys AG boosted spending on proprietary antibody development in the first quarter as its lead product was readied for combination studies in separate B cell malignancies. Financial results for the period showed a steep drop in revenue and a rise in expenses. But liquidity remained strong.
Bispecific, which is the term given to a molecule that binds to two different antigen, has largely been associated with therapeutic antibodies. But research has also been underway to discover whether the same concept can be applied to small molecules.