News

The Roche Group’s multiple sclerosis drug Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) generated sales of CHF 1.4 billion ($1.44 billion) in the first quarter of 2022 making it the company’s top-selling drug – ahead of the cancer treatments Perjeta and Tecentriq. Group sales for the quarter were CHF 16.4 billion, up by 10% in Swiss francs from a year earlier and by 11% in constant exchange rates. Roche does not report operating or net income figures on a quarterly basis. But the company did say it expects to increase its dividend for the year.

MitoRx Therapeutics Ltd, a new UK company focused on degenerative diseases, has completed a seed financing round in order to develop therapeutics that reverse mitochondrial dysfunction. Investors in the new company include the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, Wren Capital, Oxford Technology Management as well as angel investors. The size of the financing was not disclosed.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is to provide €15 million to IRBM SpA of Italy to expand research into new vaccines and treatments for SARS-CoV-2 and future coronaviruses. The funding, which runs through to 2024 will increase vaccine production capacity and prepare for future outbreaks of infectious diseases. It comes at a time when vaccine companies elsewhere are also bolstering manufacturing capacity in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc is to acquire Checkmate Pharmaceuticals Inc, a US oncology company with a clinical asset under investigation for the treatment of a number of cancers. Regeneron, which is a producer of antibody therapeutics, has built a pharmaceutical presence in a wide range of disease areas including inflammatory conditions, cardiovascular disease, pain, and cancer.

Nektar Therapeutics Inc and Bristol Myers Squibb Co have stopped the global programme for a jointly developed cancer therapy following the failure of two clinical trials. The therapy combined bempegaldesleukin, an experimental interleukin-2 cytokine prodrug, with the checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab). A Phase 3 trial of the combination therapy in patients with previously untreated, metastatic renal cell carcinoma failed to reach statistical significance on the measure of objective response rate, according to the trial’s independent data monitoring committee.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc is to acquire the specialty oncology company Sierra Oncology Inc which is poised to make a regulatory submission for its lead product momelotinib in the US in the second quarter. A submission to the European Medicines agency is anticipated in the second half of 2022. Momelotinib has been developed to treat patients with myelofibrosis with anaemia. The acquisition has been valued at $1.9 billion.

France-based bioMérieux SA is to acquire Specific Diagnostics Inc of the US in order to strengthen its position in the detection of infections from antibiotic resistant pathogens. Specific Diagnostics, a privately held company, has developed an antimicrobial susceptibility test that can detect Gram negative bacteria directly from blood cultures in an average of five hours. This is said to help clinicians identify bloodstream infections and decide what type of treatment to deploy for patients, in particular, whether to use a therapy for multidrug resistant infections.

A synthetic peptide being developed by Bicycle Therapeutics Plc of the UK has shown promising results in a Phase 1/2 study of patients with urothelial carcinoma. The drug, BT8009, is a synthetic short peptide which is being developed for advanced solid tumours associated with Nectin-4 expression. Results for eight out of 34 patients from the study were reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in April.

An antibody construct developed by Affimed NV of Germany has generated objective responses from a small group of lymphoma patients – all of whom had exhausted all available treatment options. The Phase 1/2 investigator-led study is being conducted at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in the US. Updated clinical data were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in April.

A new gene therapy project has been launched by ViGeneron GmbH of Germany and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc that would potentially result in the development of a treatment for an inherited retinal disorder. The two companies announced their collaboration on 6 April but did not identify the disease.