Sales of paediatric vaccines, in particular Quinvaxem, added to revenue growth at the Dutch biophamarceutical company, Crucell NV, in the 2008 second quarter. Together with increased licensing income and higher sales of travel vaccines, revenue and other operating income rose by 51% to €59.6 million from €39.4 million a year earlier. Based on these results, Crucell said it expects revenue and operating income to increase by 20% for the year as a whole.
Nycomed SCA SICAR is projecting only a small drop in profits in 2008 even though it faces generic competition for its best selling drug, pantoprazole, a proton pump inhibitor for acid-related gastrointestinal diseases.
The Austrian vaccine producer, Intercell AG, said that regulatory decisions should be forthcoming soon on its applications to market a new prophylactic vaccine against Japanese encephalitis, IC51. Japanese encephalitis is a virulent mosquito-borne infection that is a leading cause of childhood encephalitis and viral encephalitis in Asia.
The Swiss developer of therapeutic vaccines, Cytos Biotechnology AG, has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Pfizer Vaccines LLC to research and commercialise novel vaccines against a number of human diseases. The disease targets were not disclosed.
The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) is investigating two reports of a rare brain infection in patients who have been treated with the multiple-sclerosis drug, Tysabri (natalizumab).
Oxford BioMedica Plc has confirmed that it received an unsolicited bid from a US diagnostics company following a rise in its share price on the London Stock Exchange by about 25%.
Novozymes A/S, which produces enzymes and micro-organisms for industrial use, saw sales and profits increase in the 2008 first half on the back of strong demand for all of its business segments except biopharmaceuticals.
Belgium’s Galapagos NV, which specialises in developing drugs for bone and joint diseases, expects to file an investigational new drug application (IND) by the end of 2008 for Nanocort, a liposome-formulation of the corticosteroid, prednisolone. The drug is being developed to treat flares in rheumatoid arthritis.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology, based in Budapest, Hungary, has appointed its first 18-person governing board. The institute is a new European Union organisation that will promote new technologies in the physical, social and life sciences.
In response to questions about why its share price has been rising sharply, Protherics Plc said its board is considering approaches from a number of parties interested in acquiring the company but that no formal offers have been made.