The German drug developer, 4SC AG, said that it has raised €29.45 million from existing and new shareholders in order to finance its acquisition of eight oncology projects from Nycomed, a privately-owned, Zurich-based pharmaceutical company. The capital increase was supported by Santo Holding (Deutschland) GmbH, which is 4SC’s largest shareholder.
The Swiss biopharmaceutical company, Actelion AG, will receive CHF 150 million (£66 million) up-front and up to CHF 3.15 billion in future milestone payments from GlaxoSmithKline as part of a co-development and co-commercialisation deal for Actelion’s treatment for primary insomnia, almorexant.
Roche AG has discontinued three HIV discovery programmes because it has determined that they were unlikely to yield products that would be sufficiently innovative compared with what is already on the market. The programmes include one non-nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) and two CCR5s, one of which was a small molecule and the other an antibody. The NNRTi drug candidate was a small molecule.
Novartis said it will make a mandatory offer valued at CHF 907 million or the equivalent of $880 million for the share capital of Speedel Holding AG, which has developed a first-in-class renin inhibitor for reducing hypertension, Tekturna (aliskiren).
The AIM-listed company, ImmuPharma Plc, has raised an additional £1.07 million, net of expenses, for its drug development programme bringing the total raised from a recent private placement to £2.6 million.
The UK unit of the Swiss multinational, Roche, has been suspended from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) for six months for breaches of the association’s code of practice, the ABPI announced on 14 July 2008.
Two potential treatments for cystic fibrosis have been recommended for designation as orphan medicinal products in Europe, the European Medicines Agency said on 10 July 2008. The two treatments bring to 27 the number of drugs either designated as orphans or recommended for designation for this indication. Despite this high number none of the cystic fibrosis treatments has received a marketing authorisation. This has prompted the EMEA to issue a new guidance document for developers of cystic fibrosis products.
Oxford BioMedica Plc has stopped administering vaccinations to patients in a Phase 3 trial of its lead cancer product, TroVax, after an independent data safety monitoring board declared that the study would not meet its primary endpoint of overall survival in renal cancer. The study will be completed in order to collect follow-up data on patients. But the trial data alone will not be sufficient to support an application for a marketing authorisation in renal cancer, the company said on 11 July 2008.
Solvay Pharmaceuticals SA said that it expects to complete its takeover of Innogenetics NV in the second half of 2008 after beating off a rival bid for the Belgian diagnostics company from Gen-Probe Inc of San Diego, California.
The UK drug development company, Modern Biosciences, has entered into an exclusive agreement with the University of Bradford, also of the UK, to develop a vascular disrupting agent for cancer. Financial terms were not disclosed.