Addex SA, of Geneva, said scientific findings published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics described the discovery and characterization of ADX71743, a potent and selective negative allosteric modulator of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 7. Data showed the compound was active in rodent models of anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. AIMM Therapeutics NV, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, entered a strategic partnership with Cosmo Pharmaceuticals SpA, of Milan

Oncothyreon Inc. lost more than half its value during early trading last Wednesday after partner Merck KgaA disclosed that its cancer vaccine, L-BLP25 (Stimuvax), failed to meet the primary endpoint of overall survival in a pivotal Phase III trial in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Merck, of Darmstadt, Germany, did say that "notable treatment effects were seen for L-BLP25 in certain subgroups," but other than that it remained completely tightlipped about the outcome of the trial

LONDON – A third spinout has emerged from GlaxoSmithKline plc's neurosciences research portfolio, with the formation of NeRRe Therapeutics Ltd. The new company begins life with a portfolio of four neurokinin-1 receptor antagonists – of which two are ready for Phase II – and £11.5 million (US$18.7 million) in venture capital funding. NeRRe's co-founder and CEO is Emiliangelo Ratti, who was senior vice president of neurosciences drug discovery at GSK's Medicines Research Centre in Verona, Italy

Karolinska Development AB is getting an SEK220 million ($33.7 million) cash injection from Rosetta Capital Ltd. for 13 of the 25 companies in its portfolio. The new money will go a long way toward helping the firms, which are all early stage, gain enough maturity to find partners or buyers. "It gives us enough cash to reach all the major inflection points in our portfolio," Torbjörn Bjerke, CEO of Solna, Sweden-based Karolinska Development, told BioWorld International. The 13 companies span

LONDON – The French vaccines manufacturing technology company Vivalis SA is acquiring Austrian vaccines discoverer and developer Intercell AG, of Vienna, in an all-share deal valued at €133 million (US$175 million). At the same time the merged company, to be named Valneva, is raising €40 million in a rights issue to strengthen the balance sheet and advance ambitions to become a fully integrated vaccines and antibody specialist. Valneva will be based in Lyon, France, with listings on the NYSE

Dutalys GmbH, an early stage company developing a bispecific antibody platform, entered a research collaboration with a top 10 pharmaceutical firm that could evolve into a product licensing alliance. The unnamed pharma company has obtained a research license, which provides it with access to the Dutalys technology, and it has signed an option agreement that would allow it to develop and commercialize up to three potential products. Dutalys, of Vienna, Austria, is receiving an annual technology

It's a cell-eat-cell world in there. And apparently, that's a good thing, too. "In the body, almost any cell can eat other cells," Kodi Ravichandran told BioWorld International. "Especially their neighbors who are dying." Specialized eaters, such as macrophages, dendritic cells and monocytes, are faster at such eating and can eat more. But their abilities are not unique. As Ravichandran put it, "you and I cannot win an eating contest. Professional eaters, people who practice every day, are

Six years after building an acquisition-led position in the research and diagnostic antibody space, MorphoSys AG is exiting the field, via a €53 million (US$69.7 million) cash sale of its Abd Serotec unit to Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. The transaction is expected to close in January, and 130 MorphoSys employees, based in Germany, the UK and the U.S., will, along with the facilities they work in, transfer across to Hercules, Calif.-based Bio-Rad. The Abd Serotec unit comprises three main

Algeta ASA, of Oslo, Norway, said partner Bayer AG, of Leverkusen, Germany, submitted a marketing authorization application to the European Medicines Agency for Alpharadin (radium-223 dichloride) for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer patients with bone metastases. The submission triggers a €50 million (US$65.7 million) milestone payment under the firms' 2009 agreement, and it is based on positive data from the Phase III ALSYMPCA study, in which Alpharadin significantly

Breaking out the champagne may not have been the appropriate reaction, but Biotie Therapies Oyj had reason to celebrate Friday, as the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended approval for its alcohol dependence drug Selincro (nalmefene). Formal European Commission approval should follow in February, paving the way for a commercial launch shortly thereafter. H. Lundbeck A/S, Biotie's development partner, said it plans to launch the product in

LONDON – A year and a half after Roche AG handed back rights, Evotec AG has found a new home for its NMDA antagonist portfolio, in a licensing deal with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. worth a potential $75 million up to launch. In addition, there will be milestones payable on further products and/or indications, plus $100 million in commercial milestones on any products that get to market. "We are really pleased to relicense these compounds. We were disappointed when Roche returned rights," said

Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG and Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Biotech Inc., have thrown in their lot together in a combined effort to develop antagonists of retinoic acid-related orphan receptor gamma (RORγt) for inflammatory disease. J&J, of New Brunswick, N.J., could pay Phenex up to $135 million in an undisclosed up-front payment and development milestones for molecules emerging from the collaboration. The total potential value of the deal is actually higher than the headline amount

The numbers may be too small to allow any firm conclusions to be drawn, but Clavis Pharma ASA reported positive Phase II data for a combination of elacytarabine and idarubicin in patients with early stage acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who had either relapsed on or proved refractory to a first-line therapy that included cytarabine. The drug, a modified form of cytarabine, elicited a complete response in 13 of 46 evaluable patients (28 percent) and an overall response rate of 43.5 percent of the

LONDON – Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London published Tuesday details of the Phase III trial of Johnson & Johnson's prostate cancer drug Zytiga (abiraterone acetate) in men who had not received chemotherapy, a day after the FDA agreed to a label extension allowing the drug to be used at that earlier stage of the disease. The trial showed that when Zytiga was given to men with no symptoms or mild symptoms before chemotherapy, it doubled the time before tumor

BRISTOL, UK – The 25 clinical trials of cell therapies that are in progress currently in the UK could represent the foundations of £10 billion (US$16.1 billion) industry. But while it is early enough in the development of the field for the UK to build a strong market position, there is little evidence as yet that new cell therapies can be developed, commercialized and become an established form of health care, according to Keith Thompson, CEO of the Cell Therapy Catapult (CTC) center. The

LONDON – Scientists have tracked the cause of a rare genetic condition that causes muscular weakness to a mutation affecting neurotransmission. The mutation is in the gene that encodes a molecule that transports choline into the neuron at the neuromuscular junction. Choline is a vital raw material required for the synthesis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Although the condition studied, which is known as distal hereditary motor neuropathy Type VII (dHMN-VII), is very rare, the

LONDON – The British government announced a £100 million (US$161 million) plan to make the UK the first country in the world to introduce whole-genome sequencing into a mainstream health care system. The money will fund a full-genome analysis of 100,000 cancer and rare disease patients over the next three to five years, improving health care and promoting the emergence of novel technology platforms that will provide the basis on which new companies and services can be built. Announcing the

Active Biotech AB, of Lund, Sweden, and Ipsen SA, of Paris, said the Phase III study of tasquinimod in prostate cancer is fully enrolled, with more than 1,200 randomized patients. That achievement triggers a €10 million (US$12.9 million) milestone payment from Ipsen to Active Biotech. The study is testing tasquinimod in patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer, with radiological progression-free survival as the primary endpoint and overall survival as a secondary endpoint

Biotie Therapies Oyj got a final-quarter lift from its Parkinson's disease drug tozadenant (SYN115), which hit the primary endpoint of a Phase IIb trial in 420 patients. Only top-line data are available at present, but tozadenant, an adenosine A2a antagonist, significantly decreased the "off" time associated with levodopa therapy in comparison with placebo. The problem for Parkinson's patients arises when ongoing treatment with levodopa leads to a reduction in the drug's effect. Increasing its