It was an auspicious moment to start a conference. Deborah Harland, partner of SR One, announced at the start of the UK BioTrinity conference on 13 April 2011, that the corporate venture arm of GlaxoSmithKline Plc, had just led a €15 million fundraising for the Austrian antibody company, F-Star GmbH.
Generic competition and government austerity measures contributed to a 4% decline in 2011 first-quarter revenue at AstraZeneca Plc while core operating profit fell by 5% . But earnings per share rose by 10% helped by a recent tax settlement.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc is proposing to raise its interim dividend by 7% and continue its programme of share buybacks despite a 10% decline in sales in the 2011 first quarter. Share buybacks for the year will be at the top end of the predicted £1-£2 billion range.
Silence Therapeutics Plc is proposing to raise up to £5.5 million through the issue of new shares to institutional investors and directors, and a possible additional £1 million in an open offer, which together would support its RNAi drug development platform.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd announced that it has raised £25 million through a share placement with new and existing investors to support the further development of its DNA sequencing and other technologies.
Juventas Therapeutics, a 2007 spin-out of the Cleveland Clinic in the US, has reported the completion of a Phase 1 study of its regenerative medicine product for heart failure. No adverse events related to the treatment were reported.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Menactra, a vaccine to prevent invasive meningococcal disease, for use in children as young as nine months old. The vaccine was developed by Sanofi Pasteur.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has approved escitalopram (Lexapro) to treat patients with depression, according to the drug’s developer, H. Lundbeck A/S. The Danish company’s partner in Japan is Mochida Pharmaceutical.
A Phase 3 trial of a combination vaccine intended to protect children against six infectious diseases is being launched at multiple sites in the US according to its sponsors, Merck & Co and Sanofi Pasteur. The trial will involve 1,440 infants.
The Stanford University School of Medicine, together with privately-held SanBio Inc, have started a Phase 1/2a trial of an allogeneic cell therapy on patients with stable deficits resulting from a stroke.