News

Ark Therapeutics Group Plc and SkyePharma Plc have announced the resignations of their chief executive officers. The departures come after both companies encountered regulatory obstacles for their lead drugs.

The US National Institutes of Health have awarded $3.4 million to GlycoVaxyn AG of Switzerland and a researcher at the Harvard Medical School to carry out preclinical work on a new S. aureus vaccine for hospital-acquired infections.

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued its first-ever approval of a cellular immunotherapy. The product, Provenge (sipuleucel-T), is a therapeutic vaccine developed by Dendreon Corp of Seattle, Washington.

Affimed Therapeutics AG of Germany has raised €20 million in a Series C round to bring it antibody candidate for Hodgkin’s lymphoma into the clinic and develop its pipeline. The round was led by existing investors including Novo Nordisk A/S.

Bicycle Therapeutics Ltd, which is developing a new peptide technology, has completed its seed funding round having raised new money from SR One, the venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline, and SV Life Sciences. The sums were not disclosed.

AstraZeneca has revised upward its per-share earnings forecast for 2010 even though revenue growth may be constrained by expected generic competition for the breast cancer drug, Arimidex, and lower pandemic flu vaccine sales.

Sanofi-Aventis continued to diversify into consumer healthcare and the emerging markets in the 2010 first quarter, while also strengthening its franchise in diabetes with the signing of partnerships in glucose monitoring and diabetes research.

The French multinational gave an update on its new strategic direction with the release of its 2010 first quarter results on 29 April.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc reported a rise in turnover of 13%, at constant exchange rates, in the first quarter, driven by sales of anti-viral and pandemic influenza products. Sales in western markets meanwhile contributed less to the total, than a year ago.

Novo Nordisk A/S said that modern insulins drove growth in the first quarter when sales, in local currencies, rose by 11% to DKK13.7 million (€1.84 million). At the end of the quarter, the Danish company claimed 51% of the global insulin market.

Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) Inc of Madison, Wisconsin has raised $40.6 million in a Series B private equity round to increase production capacity for its human heart cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs).