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

Europe's cash-starved biotechnology sector has another €240 million (US$312 million) to aim for, following Sofinnova Partners' successful closing of its seventh fund. For the first time, Paris-based Sofinnova is focusing exclusively on life sciences, having previously invested more than a quarter of its capital, including its €260 million sixth fund, in IT. "Life sciences is what has provided most of the returns at Sofinnova over a long period of time, across all of the funds," managing

LONDON – Two major networks of genes and their encoded proteins, involved in lipid metabolism and inflammation, play an important role in determining a person's risk of developing coronary artery disease (CAD), a new study has found. Surprisingly, however, the study identified no statistically significant association between diabetes or glucose metabolism and the genetic variants confirmed to increase risk of CAD. The results will direct future research aimed at identifying new drug targets to

More than a year on from a controversial opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the patentability of innovations derived from embryonic stem cell (ESC) research, Germany's Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) has provided a final decision in the case, which leaves some scope for patent grants in that field. It's been almost 15 years since Oliver Brüstle, of the Institute of Reconstructive Neurobiology at the University of Bonn, filed for a patent on the use of

A recent European licensing deal between Orphan Europe and Erytech Pharma SA on a novel formulation of asparaginase, called Graspa, is further evidence of the commercial revitalization of a long-established treatment in hematologic cancer. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal follows the $700 million buyout earlier this year of Oxford, UK-based EUSA Pharma Ltd. by Dublin, Ireland-based Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc. That transaction gave Jazz ownership of Erwinaze/Erwinase (asparaginase

AiCuris GmbH, of Wuppertal, Germany, said it started the second clinical efficacy trial testing pritelivir (AIC316), its herpes simplex virus (HSV) drug, after data from the first study showed a high degree of efficacy against genital herpes. The study is designed to prove the superiority of pritelivir vs. valacyclovir in reducing genital HSV shedding. Bayer AG, of Leverkusen, Germany, said results of two pivotal Phase III studies, published in The Lancet, demonstrated the efficacy of

LONDON – The good news is that the number of product approvals granted to the top 12 pharma companies increased by one-third in 2012. The bad news is that while the 32 approvals in 2010-2011 accounted for forecast revenues of $309 billion, the 41 products that made it past regulators in 2011-2012 have forecast revenues of just $211 billion, according to "Measuring the Return from Pharmaceutical Innovation," a report unpicking the internal rate of return on R&D investment in the industry. There

LONDON – The secretive backers of Cardiorentis Ltd. prefer to remain anonymous, but they obviously are expecting to see the name of the company's main asset, Ularitide, in lights, having made a €100 million (US$130.6 million) investment to put the product through a Phase III trial in treating 2,116 patients with acute heart failure. The man steering that effort is Elmar Schnee, former board member of Merck KGaA, who was appointed chairman and CEO of Cardiorentis in October 2011, following its