©Rentschler Biopharma SE

Rentschler Biopharma SE, a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for biopharmaceuticals, today appointed Dr. Ralf Otto as Chief Operating Officer (COO), effective February 1, 2018.

Following critisism from the industry, the European Patent Office has drafted a proposal to allow exemptions to its Early Certainty Initiative. Industry associations had pressed the EPO not to limit the time to grant a patent to 12 months arguing it would have detrimental effects on the life sciences sector.

EU ombudsman Emily O' Reilly sees no indication of conflict of interest with the EMA's panel members who assessed the AEs relating to pediatric cervical cancer vaccines. (picture ©European Parliament/Alexis Haulat)

A complaint against the EMA’s handling of a referral procedure related to potential side effects of Sanofi/MSD’s HPV vaccine Gardasil and GSK’s HPV jab Cervarix, filed by the Nordic Cochrane Centre and physicians, has been rejected by the European Ombudsman.

©Jane Gitschier under CC BY 2.5, source: doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0010076

Storm Therapeutics today announced the appointment of Nobel Prize Winner Professor Thomas Cech as a Scientific Advisor. This appointment follows STORM Therapeutics’ successful Series A Financing Extension announced in January 2018. 

Sanofi Paris headquarters, © Daniel Rousselot

Briefly after Belgian nanobody maker Ablynx rejected a €2.3bn take-over bid of Novo, its board accepted a €3.9bn tender of its R&D partner Sanofi. It’s the second large take-over of Sanofi this month.

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) greenlighted seven medicines for approval at its January 2018 meeting, including one orphan medicine, and one biosimilar.

© Congenica

Congenica, a global provider of clinical genomics interpretation software, today announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive Officer David Atkins, Ph.D. Based at the Company’s headquarters in Cambridge, UK, Dr Atkins also joins Congenica’s Board of Directors.

Picture: BIOCOM  Analysis of European Biotech Companies on the Stock Markets 2017/18

The European biotech stock market witnessed an increase in IPO and follow-on financing volumes in 2017. According to the new BIOCOM capital market report, published in November during BIO-Europe in Berlin, more than half the money was raised on the US Nasdaq. Within Europe, Euronext is still is the most attractive location – but Stockholm is catching up.

Aedes aegyptii mosquito, © CDC/Gathany

Scientists at the University of Glasgow have found a bacterial strain which blocks dengue and Zika virus transmission from mosquitoes.

Novartis AG has strengthened its ophtalmology portfolio by acquiring a licence for Spark Therapeutics’ voretigene neparvovec (Luxturna), an FDA-approved gene therapy that corrects mutations in RPE65, which leads to juvenile blindness in homozygotous carriers.