Barcelona, Spain-based Ysios Capital has raised €126.4 million for a new fund that will invest in biotechnology, medical device and diagnostic companies across Europe, with a special emphasis on Spain. Ysios BioFund II Innvierte is expected to finance up to 15 early-stage companies.
Ablynx NV is poised to consult regulatory authorities in the US and Europe on plans for the Phase 3 development of its biologic for rheumatoid arthritis vobarilizumab. The Belgium-based company will also initiate discussions with potential partners for the drug.
Novo Nordisk A/S plans to become a diversified pharmaceutical company instead of relying mostly on its large diabetes franchise, for which it claims a 27% global market share.
Strong demand for rare disease medicines and early shipments of influenza vaccines to the US boosted third-quarter sales at Sanofi SA, offsetting the loss of income from the off-patent insulin Lantus. As a result, Sanofi upgraded its profit forecast for 2016.
Recruitment for Phase 3 clinical trials of AstraZeneca’s treatment for head and neck cancer, both mono and combination therapies, has been suspended by the US regulator because of bleeding by some of the patients, the UK company disclosed on 27 October.
Novartis’ management continued to implement measures to improve productivity in the third quarter as the company faced generic competition for the oncology drug Gleevec, and sales of its Alcon eye division declined.
A new Swiss biotech company, Inositec AG, has been launched with seed capital of CHF1.4 million ($1.42 million) to advance a drug candidate into the clinic using a new small molecule technology developed by researchers at ETH Zurich.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc reported higher revenue across its three main businesses in the third quarter, including a rise in sales for new respiratory products. This more than offset declines for Advair, the company’s off-patent asthma medicine.
Evotec AG, which operates a global drug discovery business, is proposing to acquire Cyprotex Plc, a London-listed contract research organisation, which has developed a service for measuring the performance of drugs under development called ADME-Tox.
Roche Holding AG said that its sales rose 4.0% in the first nine months to CHF 37.5 billion (€34.59 billion), measured at constant exchange rates, compared with a 6% gain in the previous nine month period.