AstraZeneca Plc said its treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer, Recentin (cediranib), showed no improvement in overall survival in a Phase 3 trial, the second of two pivotal studies for this indication. A regulatory filing will not be made.
Noxxon Pharma AG said that it has raised €33 million in a Series D round of financing to support the ongoing clinical and preclinical development of its mirror-image oligonucleotides known as Spiegelmers. The round was led by NGN Capital.
The Novartis Group said that a Phase 3 trial of a drug for ovarian cancer failed to meet its primary endpoint and will not be submitted to the regulatory authorities. The drug, EPO906 (patupilone), did not show a significant overall survival advantage.
The European Medicines Agency has given its backing to data generated by a company which is developing a new cell therapy. It is the first time the regulator has formerly certified early-stage data for an advanced therapy product.
The privately-owned UK pharmaceutical company, Funxional Therapeutics Ltd, has raised €10 million in a Series B funding to advance its lead, small molecule drug candidate into Phase 2 for inflammatory conditions including asthma.
Sanofi-Aventis SA said that it has entered into a research alliance with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Biomedical Innovation that will support the translation of basic research into new healthcare products.
Wilex AG of Germany said that a Phase 3 study of its diagnostic antibody for the detection of renal cancer, Redectane (girentuximab), met the trial endpoints for both sensitivity and specificity.
BTG Plc is preparing to make its first product sales in the US as part of a broader drive to grow its speciality pharmaceutical business. For the year ended 31 March 2010, the company swung into profit following a loss the previous year.
The US Food and Drug Administration has ordered Genzyme Corp to pay the government $175 million as a penalty for selling drugs that were manufactured at a plant in Allston, Massachusetts which had serious quality problems.
The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded a grant to a San Diego, California-based company to progress new technology for fighting S. aureus by disrupting a signalling process called quorum sensing.