University College London in the UK has obtained financing for a £50 million in-house venture fund that will invest in spinouts and early stage projects originated by its academic staff in the life sciences, engineering and information technology.
Argenx NV, which engineers antibodies originating in llamas, has announced plans to sell about €16 million worth of its shares to funds managed by Federated Investors Inc of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, one of the US’s largest funds with more than $350 billion under management.
Galapagos NV and AbbVie Inc have announced progress in their cystic fibrosis drug collaboration and restated their goal of developing a combination therapy for patients with the most common genetic defect – the Delta F508 mutation.
A volunteer in a Phase 1 trial of a novel neurological therapy, who had been declared brain dead three days ago, died on Sunday, according to the drug’s developer Bial-Portela & Ca. SA of Portugal. Five other patients who took part in the trial remained hospitalised.
A candidate drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that progressively weakens muscles in the body, has been turned down by the US Food and Drug Administration because of insufficient efficacy, according to the sponsor BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.
Encouraging early data for a new drug in patients with HIV infection has been reported by France-based ABIVAX SA, a publicly listed company with two candidate products in clinical development.
Nestlé Health Science has made a further financial commitment to the microbiome with an agreement to fund development and eventually market products to treat infection and inflammatory disorders being developed by Seres Therapeutics Inc.
Merck & Co Inc has taken another step to bolster its immuno-oncology pipeline with the acquisition of privately-owned IOmet Pharma of Scotland and its pre-clinical portfolio of small molecule drugs targeting enzymes involved in a number of cancers.
F-star Biotechnology Ltd has secured a new partner to help it exploit its bispecific antibody platform for cancer therapies. AbbVie Inc has now joined Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), Merck Serono and Boehringer Ingelheim as research partners of the UK-based company.
Shire Plc is to buy Baxalta Inc for about $32 billion in cash and shares after some six months of negotiation in which Shire obtained professional advice that the transaction would be tax-free to Baxalta shareholders, who are to end up with 34% of the combined company.