The UK drug-device company, Biocompatibles International Plc, is in advanced talks with another party which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company. The talks were disclosed on 28 October to the London Stock Exchange.
Index Ventures, the Geneva-based venture capital company, is providing the initial funding of €1.5 million for a company that has been set up to exploit a new technology for treating serious brain diseases.
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has announced plans to invest $60 million over three years in bispecific antibody technology which has been developed by the US, venture capital-backed biotechnology company, MacroGenics Inc.
Elan Plc said that it has developed an assay that appears to identify those multiple sclerosis patients on Tysabri (natalizumab) who are at risk of developing the rare brain disease, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).
Genmab A/S has announced further plans to reduce its headcount and generate savings for the ongoing development of its therapeutic antibody programmes. This follows the launch of a new strategy in September under new management.
H. Lundbeck A/S has signalled its confidence in the experimental stroke treatment, desmoteplase, by increasing the size of two ongoing Phase 3 trials of the drug and committing money to the development of possible second-generation compounds.
The UK government has launched two new life science clusters that will bring experts from industry, the academic community and the National Health Service together to do early-stage drug development.
AstraZeneca Plc’s new nasal spray vaccine designed to prevent seasonal flu has been given a positive opinion by the European Medicine Agency’s main scientific committee, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Herceptin (trastuzumab) in combination with chemotherapy for HER2-positive metastatic stomach and gastroesophageal junction cancers, the drug’s manufacturer, Roche, announced.
The US Food and Drug Administration has asked manufacturers of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, which are used to treat men with prostate cancer, to carry warnings on their labels about the potential risk of heart disease and diabetes.