National European regulatory authorities are developing common criteria for assessing applications for multi-centre clinical trials, something that is expected to reduce the cost of conducting these studies in Europe.
The UK government has reached an agreement in principle with the pharmaceutical industry to create incentives for primary care physicians to prescribe new medicines in exchange for a voluntary 2% reduction in the prices charged to the National Health Service (NHS) for branded medicines.
The German drug developer, 4SC AG, has announced plans to raise up to €29 million from its existing shareholders in order to finance the acquisition of eight oncology projects from Nycomed, a privately-owned, Zurich-based pharmaceutical company.
NOXXON Pharma AG has signed a licensing and drug discovery agreement with Eli Lilly of the US, its third such deal with a multinational pharmaceutical company in a little over two years.
Pharming Group NV said that the results of its Phase 3 North American trial of the recombinant human protein, Rhucin, were positive enabling it to proceed with regulatory filings in both the US and Europe.
Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, a unit of Novartis, has told the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) that it is withdrawing its marketing authorisation application for Aflunov, a pre-pandemic vaccine.
SYGNIS Pharma AG is acquiring the closely-held US biopharmaceutical company, Amnestix Inc, for €4 million, paying a combination of cash and shares.
Genmab A/S, which develops therapies based on fully human antibodies, expects to report revenue of 1 billion Danish Krone (DKK) in 2008. However, it is projecting an operating loss of DKK 900 to 1,000 million and a net loss in the range of DKK 800 to 900 million.
Jerini AG expects to launch its treatment for acute attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE), Icatibant, in Europe in the third quarter of 2008 following a positive opinion from the main scientific committee of the European Medicine Agency in April. The company expects to receive a marketing authorisation from the European Commission in late June or early July, a spokeswoman told MedNous.
Ablynx NV of Ghent, Belgium, which is developing a new class of antibody-derived therapeutic proteins called Nanobodies, said that revenues for the first quarter of 2008 were €3.3 million, up by 53% compared with €2.1 million a year earlier.