News

  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.

 Crispr Therapeutics AG, which is preparing nine gene-edited projects for clinical testing, has raised $91 million with an initial public offering (IPO) of shares on the Nasdaq market in the US and a private placement in Europe.

Research carried out in the Netherlands shows that a person’s risk of getting cancer cannot be explained by the number of errors found in DNA. Scientists at the University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute have come to this conclusion after mapping the genetic profile of organoids.

A new medicine that is expected to protect against a rare liver disease known as primary biliary cholangitis, has been recommended for approval in the European Union following a Phase 3 study in which the treatment showed a clear benefit over placebo.

Dr Christopher J. Holloway, co-founder of the ERA Consulting Group and a member of the MedNous Editorial Board since 2007, died on 17 September 2016.

The Helsinn Group has joined the growing number of pharmaceutical companies that have decided to support early stage life science with a dedicated investment fund – the Helsinn Investment Fund SA.

UK-based Crescendo Biologics Ltd has secured its first commercial deal since its founding in 2007 with the signing of a collaboration and license option agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. The deal concerns several preclinical drug candidates that have been derived from the VH antibody domains of transgenic mice.

Patients with head and neck cancer who were treated with nivolumab experienced a better quality of life than those treated with chemotherapy, according to an outcomes study released on 9 October at the European Society for Medical Oncology congress in Copenhagen.

France-based Innate Pharma SA said data from a Phase 1 study of its antibody lirilumab administered with nivolumab to patients with refractory solid tumours, showed a similar safety profile to that of nivolumab alone. The data were presented on 9 October at ESMO.

A study by clinicians at the Universities of Leuven and Ghent in Belgium, together with the University of Oxford, has shown that better use of a point-of-care diagnostic can help general practitioners determine which children need hospitalisation because of a serious disease and which can remain at home.