Polpharma Biologics SA has partnered up with Novartis subsidiary Sandoz AG to market a natalizumab biosimilar. As part of the global commercialization agreement, Polpharma Biologics will be responsible for the development, manufacturing and supply of the collaboration biosimilar, which is currently in Phase III clinical development for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

German pharma company Boehringer Ingelheim said the phase II trial for candidate drug BI456906 is expected to be initiated in late 2019 triggering a €20m milestone payment to Zealand Pharma A/S.

Results presented at European Society of  Cardiology Congress 2019 demonstrate a new disease mechanism predicting acute organ dysfunction in heart failure patients.

A US-EU research team has found that a class of compounds that promote tumour cell death can also limit autoimmunity.

BioEcho develops single-spin and 96-well kits for the isolation of DNA from different starting materials. Their proprietary EchoLUTION single-step technology avoids the use of inhibitory process reagents while using dedicated efficient lysis reagents for e.g. different plant tissues. In contrast to common bind-wash-elute procedures, the process does not require washing steps. The inhibitor-free DNA enables lowered time-to-result in enzyme-dependent genomic analyses such as PCR or NGS.

Celgene will pay $75m upfront to get an option on three cancer programmes developed by Immatics Biotechnologies.

Danish microbiology specialist Unibio International plc had completed a US$15m financing round led by West Hill Capital.

US company Freenome will use its multiomics platform to develop response biomarkers to ADC Therapeutics’ Phase II antibody drug conjugate (ADC) ADCT-402.

GlaxoSmithKline plc announced belantamab mafodotin (GSK2857916) met the primary endpoint of overall response rate (ORR) in a pivotal Phase II trial in treatment-refractive multiple myeloma.

Researchers from Paul Scherrer Institute in Villingen, Switzerland, and Hoffmann La-Roche AG report in Cell they have solved the structure of a target relevant in metastasis.