French Dx play BioMérieux has acquired German Hyglos. The leader in industrial microbiological control paid around €24m for the German company and its innovative endotoxin detection method.

British research service provider Envigo has appointed Scott Schulz to the post of Director, North American Operations. Schulz joins Envigo from Taconic Biosciences, where he was VP of Operations.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) means to increase first-in-man trial safety. Following the death of a volunteer in a Phase I trial earlier this year, the European Medicines Agency has started a review of the guidelines for first-in-man studies.

A novel ophthalmic solution from R-Tech Ueno (Tokyo, Japan) made using Novozymes Biopharma’s recombinant human albumin has recently obtained FDA approval to undergo Phase I/II clinical trials in the United States.

The Finnish Technology Academy has awarded US-American innovator Frances Arnold the 2016 Millennium Technology Prize, worth €1m. Arnold is a pioneer in the field of directed evolution.

BigDNA relaunches as Iceni Pharmaceuticals with the aim to develop repurposed and reformulated cancer therapies. First order of business: repurpose Merck Serono’s cilengitide as a multiple myeloma treatment.

Frode Marc Bohan has been reelected as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Norwegian Vitamin K2 expert NattoPharma ASA. He will continue to chair the board for the next two years.

One of the pioneering companies developing pharmaceuticals and diagnostics based on the gut microbiome, Enterome Bioscience, has raised €14.5m in a Series C financing round. Among the investors were Seventure and Lundbeckfond as well as Nestlé.

Swedish preeclampsia drug developer A1M Pharma has named Hungarian kidney specialist József Balla as the newest member of its scientific advisory board.

TAP Biosystems installs CellBase CT system at PrimeCell to provide multiple Autologous Cell Therapies.