Following weeks of negotiations and four rejected bids, British neurology and orphan drug giant Shire has agreed to Takeda’s latest take-over offer of £46bn (€52,38bn).
Vas Narasimhan, the newly appointed CEO of Swiss pharma giant Novartis, introduced himself to the Swiss biotech industry with a stimulant talk at the Swiss Biotech Day. Apart from that participants of the annual gathering were in high spirits as the Swiss biotech sector continues to grow steadily.
Swiss injection pen developer Haselmeier and Boston-based Common Sensing have partnered to develop smart connected self-injection devices that can monitor drug administration, dosing and efficacy of therapies.
The UK-based pioneer in marine biotechnologies Jellagen has closed a £3.8m funding round to boost sales of its next-generation jellyfish-based medicine. Lead investor were Newable Private Investing and the Development Bank of Wales.
Iterum Therapeutics plans to raise up to US$92m in an initial public offering on US technology stock market Nasdaq. The Irish company develops oral and IV antibiotics for urinary tract infections and intra-abdominal infections.
US biotech company Biogen has exercised the option of a one-off payment to Swiss developer Neurimmune. If Biogen’s Alzheimer’s candidate Aducanumab is approved, the sales-related payments to Neurimmune will thus be reduced by 5%.
A new study shows that a drug approved for the treatment of diabetes reverses pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and prevents right heart failure in rats. Ekaterina Legchenko and colleagues say their findings could lead to new therapies for PAH and other chronic heart and lung conditions.
Norwegian Targovax ASA has given an update of its immunononcology and pancreatic cancer clinical pipeline at ChinaBio Conference in Suzhou.
British drug maker AstraZeneca has failed to expand the reach of its combo of PD-1/CTLA4 checkpoint blockers Durvalumab/Tremelimumab. The approved second-line NSCLC treatment missed to prolong progression-free and overall survival in patients with low PD-L1 expression.
Researchers at the Universities of Dundee and Newcastle have identified a previously unknown target for the breast cancer drug palbociclib, which can be used to identify treatment responders.