News

Galápagos NV is set to acquire GlaxoSmithKline’s Zagreb, Croatia-based research site as well as provide research and development services to the UK multinational in a three-year fee-for-service contract.

Addex Pharmaceuticals Ltd of Switzerland has been awarded a $900,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation in the US to help fund a Phase 2 study of its candidate treatment for Parkinson’s disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia, ADX48621.

Regulators meeting in London on 2 and 3 September 2010 agreed that procedures in place to assess the current generation of nanomedicines are adequate. But as nanotechnology advances, adaptations will be necessary.

The Roche Group has launched a review of its staffing levels and other expenses in light of pressure on revenue from healthcare reform in the US and Europe and set-backs in its late-stage drug pipeline. Details will be announced before the end of 2010.

Forbion Capital Partners has raised €190 million for investment in the life sciences in what the managing partner described as conditions that have never been more challenging.

In the realm of nanotechnology, size matters. But exactly what is meant by ‘nanoscale’ and ‘nanomedicine’ is still open for discussion. This was one of the themes to emerge from the first day of a two-day workshop on nanotechnology which is being hosted by the European Medicines Agency in London.

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued its second ‘complete response letter’ to the AstraZeneca unit, MedImmune, rejecting its application to market motavizumab, a new monoclonal antibody for respiratory syncytial virus disease.

The Roche Group has announced plans to invest $25 million upfront for access to new peptide technology that locks peptides into their biologically active shape, mimicking the structures found in nature.

Genzyme Corp has rejected an unsolicited cash takeover bid from Sanofi-Aventis which values the company at $69 per share or $18.5 billion. The rejection was communicated in a letter to the Sanofi CEO Christopher Viehbacher.

Investigators working for a Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute-funded study have found that patients with a particular DNA variant may experience a build-up of glutamate in nerve cell junctions of the brain, a process that is thought to lead to migraine attacks.