Following the failure of a Phase 3 trial of its lead wound-care product, the Intercytex Group Plc has announced plans to sell its business or merge with another company. The UK company disclosed the start of the formal offer period on 23 February 2009.
Shares of the Neuropharm Group Plc remained weak at sharply lower levels following news that its Phase 3 trial of a treatment for autism failed to show efficacy. The preliminary trial results were announced on 18 February 2009.
Shire Plc, the UK specialty pharmaceutical company, is predicting a decline in earnings in 2009 due mainly to the loss of patent protection for its lead drug, Adderall. But it said the setback would be temporary because new product sales are soaring and new acquisitions will bolster income.
GPC Biotech AG has entered into a merger agreement with the privately-held developer of cancer drugs, Agennix Inc of Houston, Texas.
Opsona Therapeutics Ltd, an Irish medical discovery company that targets the innate immune system as a way of treating autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, has raised €18 million in a Series B financing provided by the Novartis Venture Fund, Fountain Healthcare Partners, Inventages Venture Capital and Seroba Kernel Life Sciences.
Merck Sharp & Dohme Ltd, which is the UK subsidiary of Merck & Co, has withdrawn its marketing authorisation application for the cancer treatment, Vorinostat MSD (vorinostat) from the European Medicines Agency.
Antisoma Plc expects that milestone payments from Novartis, together with the possible sale or partnering of a recently approved cancer drug, should enable it to fund its drug development programmes until the middle of 2011.
Pronova BioPharma ASA has accelerated construction of its new plant in Kalundborg, Denmark in the face of rising demand for its omega-3 derived prescription drug for hypertriglyceridemia, Omacor/Lo
France’s medicine regulator, Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des produits de santé (Afssaps), has approved the gene therapy product, Cerepro (sitimagene ceradenovec), for use on a named-patient basis in France.
The new chief executive officer of Pharming Group NV has outlined a strategy for the Dutch company that involves building up a broadly based portfolio of products in the fields of biotechnology, biomaterials and bionutritionals. The purpose is to reduce the group’s dependence on any one product. Pharming’s lead product for acute attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE), Rhucin, encountered regulatory obstacles in 2008.