UK-based Scancell Holdings Plc has raised £6.1 million from a private share placement and an open offer to shareholders enabling it to make plans to start a combination study of its lead cancer vaccine called SCIB1 and a checkpoint inhibitor.
A Phase 3 development programme for the prospective osteoarthritis drug fulranumab has been stopped early by Janssen Research & Development because of a change in strategic priorities. The decision was not based on any safety issues, the company said.
In order to protect the safety of the US blood supply, the Food and Drug Administration has given clearance for the use of an experimental diagnostic developed by Roche to test blood donations for the Zika virus. While the test has not yet been formally approved, it is being allowed for use in screening.
Milan-based Genenta Science, which has an experimental gene therapy for delivering interferon to tumours, has signed a multi-year manufacturing agreement with MolMed SpA in preparation for the start of clinical trials of a gene therapy for multiple myeloma.
Novartis has estimated that the impact on sales this year from the loss of exclusivity for the cancer drug Glivec could be as much as $3.2 billion. This means group sales, measured in constant currencies, will be about unchanged from the $49.4 billion reported in 2015.
Netherlands-based Qiagen NV, a producer of medical devices and diagnostics, is making an agreed bid for its smaller rival Exiqon A/S of Denmark for approximately €12 million in a further sign of consolidation in the global diagnostics industry.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug for hepatic veno-occlusive disease, a rare and life-threatening liver condition that can be a complication of high-dose chemotherapy given before a bone marrow transplant.
Following a review of its staff disciplinary board, the Karolinska Institutet (KI) announced on 23 March that it had dismissed Paolo Macchiarini, a surgeon who is the focus of an investigation over alleged misconduct involving a novel trachea replacement procedure.
A 2015 oncology start-up from the Netherlands has obtained €7 million in Series A financing for a technology that targets the metabolic changes in tumour cells as a way of destroying them. Gadeta BV is based on research from the University Medical Center Utrecht.
Atlantic Healthcare Plc, a UK firm specialising in gastrointestinal disorders, has raised $24 million in a private equity placement to finance the Phase 3 development of an experimental drug called alicaforsen for treating inflammatory bowel disease pouchitis.