Oxford BioMedica Plc has set new targets for its portfolio of gene therapies and hopes to have a partnership in place for at least one- a product for Parkinson’s disease - by the end of 2010. The company is funded up to the beginning of 2012.
Roche posted group sales of CHF 12.2 billion (€8.5 billion) in the first quarter, up by 9% in local currencies. Pharmaceuticals sales rose by 10% and diagnostics, by 9%. It plans to file a US marketing application for a new breast cancer drug in 2010.
The Roche group has announced plans to acquire Medingo Ltd, a company which is developing a semi-disposable insulin patch pump for diabetics. Roche will pay $160 million upfront as well as up to 25% of this amount in performance milestones.
Sanofi Pasteur has entered into a strategic partnership with the US Naval Medical Research Center to develop a bacterial vaccine against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, a cause of infectious gastroenteritis in travellers.
Life Technologies Corp of California has acquired 58% of the gene synthesis company, Geneart AG, paving the way for a public tender of the remaining shares. Life Technologies will offer €13.75 per share for the rest of the German company.
The Swiss molecular diagnostics company, Biocartis SA, has raised €30 million in a Series B financing round which was supported by the new investors, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp and the Debiopharm Group.
Sanofi-Aventis has agreed to pay up to $335 million for rights to a novel peptide that appears to stimulate the growth of new insulin-producing sites in the pancreas. The compound, for diabetes, was discovered by CureDM Inc of the US.
Crucell NV said that it has reached an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals to combine their vaccine technologies to produce a second generation vaccine for people at risk of malaria. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Scientists in the UK have identified a gene that appears to enable tumour cells to survive radiotherapy. Suppression of the gene could therefore make current radiotherapies more effective, according to the charity, Cancer Research UK.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has agreed to pay $35 million upfront to Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc for access to its technology for RNA-targeted therapeutics. The companies will be developing new drugs for rare diseases.