LONDON - Shares in Vanguard Medica plc fell by 51.5 pence to #1.45 last week when the FDA asked for further non-clinical data to support the approval of frovatriptan for the treatment of migraine. It will take nine months to complete the further toxicological studies requested by the FDA. A spokesman for Guildford-based Vanguard told BioWorld International, "Frovatriptan is highly non-toxic as a compound, and on advice, the long-term toxicology was done at 100 times the human dose, which seems
BioWorld International | Wednesday, November 3, 1999
LILLE, France - Genfit S.A., a biotech start-up incorporating what it describes as a "novel business concept of partnership between pharmaceutical companies and university research establishments," was established in this northern French city with capital of FFr11 million ($1.8 million). According to its founder and chairman, Prof. Jean-Charles Fruchart, Genfit is a genomics company whose "vocation is to discover new drugs for the third millennium." Its academic research partners, the
BioWorld International | Wednesday, November 3, 1999
BERLIN - The genome research and pharmaco-genomics company GenProfile AG was chosen from 46 entries as one of six winners of the BioChance competition sponsored by the German federal research ministry. The company was founded a year ago as the largest commercial spin-off of the German Human Genome Project. The Berlin-based company was co-founded by Margret Hoehe, head of the Genome Research Group of Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine, of Berlin, and Rolf Zettl, former managing director
BioWorld International | Wednesday, November 3, 1999
PARIS - DrugAbuse Sciences (DAS) has raised FFr140 million (US$22.4 million) from a group of European investment funds in a private funding round. The company's founder and chairman, Philippe Pouletty, said, "This is the biggest funding round ever completed in the biotechnology sector in France and one of the largest ever in Europe." He added that the company had been seeking to raise no more than $12 million to $15 million, but found that venture capitalists were prepared to put up as much as
BioWorld International | Wednesday, November 3, 1999
LONDON - Stephen Freke-Evans, the British founder of Sugen Inc., launched a scathing attack on a UK government initiative to cut the cost of healthcare provisions at last week's Business Issues for Bioscience Companies meeting in London. Although now an expatriate, Freke-Evans is something of a senior citizen on the UK biotechnology scene. He led Sugen, of South San Francisco, which is engaged in the discovery and development of small-molecule drugs that target signal transduction pathways, to
BioWorld International | Wednesday, November 3, 1999
LONDON - The sequence of the most highly variable region of the human genome - the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) - is now available. One of the first substantial regions of the human genome to be completely sequenced, the gene map of the MHC, is expected to be invaluable for researchers wanting to track down the genes responsible for many common diseases. According to the MHC Sequencing Consortium, which reports its map of the region in the Oct. 28 issue of Nature, in a letter titled
BioWorld International | Wednesday, November 3, 1999
LONDON - Antisoma plc has agreed to an exclusive deal with Abbott Laboratories for Theragyn, Antisoma's antibody-targeted radioisotope treatment for cancer that is in Phase III trials in ovarian cancer. Abbott will invest US$13 million in Antisoma and fund all future development work in ovarian cancer, which will cost $20 million between now and the completion of Phase III in two years' time. A payment of $40 million is due if the product achieves registration, and a further $40 million will be
BioWorld International | Wednesday, November 3, 1999
By Debbie Strickland Special to BioWorld Financial Watch With multiple high-profile approvals in the last two years, monoclonal antibodies seem to be finally coming of age as a major means of generating large numbers of drug candidates for a variety of disease targets. The recent approvals include Rituxan (rituximab), developed by IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corp., of San Diego, and Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, for certain forms of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; Zenapax (daclizumab
Company* (Country, Symbol) Company# (Country, Symbol) Type/Product Area Terms/Details (Month) Acadia Pharmaceuticals* Allergan (NYSE:AGN) License and research collaboration agreement to discover, develop and commercialize compounds for glaucoma, based on Acadia's receptor subtype-selective muscarinic lead compounds Acadia will grant Allergan worldwide rights to products based on Acadia's novel lead compounds for treatment of ocular disease; Acadia will provide its expertise in medicinal
PARIS - Genset has concluded a new gene library agreement with Genetics Institute (GI), a branch of Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, the pharmaceutical division of American Home Products Corp. The new deal, which replaces the original license and distribution agreement Genset signed with GI in 1997, provides for the Paris-based genomics company to supply GI and Wyeth-Ayerst with a wider range of potential products and targets for use in their internal drug discovery programs. GI has the option to
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission has proposed further changes to European Union rules in a bid to clarify the confusion that currently reigns in Europe on genetically modified foods. But the measure likely will not be enough to appease the consumer and environmental lobbies ranged against GM foods or accidental GMO presence in foods. The changes, if adopted by the 15 EU member state governments in the Council of Ministers, would introduce a minimum threshold for the presence of
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
LONDON - Prolifix Ltd., which specializes in the modulation of cell proliferation, has raised #4 million in a private placement and agreed to a partnership with Eli Lilly and Co. and Chugai Pharmaceuticals to work on small-molecule drugs to regulate the cell cycle transcription factor, E2F. Lilly, of Indianapolis, and Chugai, of Japan, will make equity investments in Prolifix, fund research, and make milestone payments. In return they will have exclusive worldwide marketing rights for any drugs
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
REHOVOT, Israel - D-Pharm was chosen as the leading startup company in the healthcare field in Israel from a field of about 500, according to a poll conducted among leaders of the Israeli business community organized by the Israeli daily newspaper, Yediot Aharonot. In a ceremony last week D-Pharm, a biopharmaceutical company in the Kiryat Weizmann Science Park in Rehovot, received an award from Orna Berry, chief scientist of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. A week earlier D-Pharm was
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
DUBLIN, Ireland - The recent publication of a government policy document on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the environment has been overshadowed by revelations that Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Bertie Ahern was lobbied on the issue last year by U.S. officials, including the U.S. national security adviser, Sandy Berger. Speaking in the Dail (Irish parliament) earlier this month, Environment Minister Noel Dempsey admitted that Berger and other U.S. officials raised the issue with
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
PARIS - ExonHit Therapeutics S.A., the Paris-based genomics company specialized in qualitative gene expression profiling, has launched a predictive toxicology tool called Safe-Hit that it claims can help pharmaceutical companies weed out candidate compounds with excessive toxicity levels early in the development process. Safe-Hit is a nucleic acid array that incorporates a library of genetic signatures that are characterized by their being affected when cells and tissues are subjected to toxic
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
LONDON - Members of the BioIndustry Association voted to adopt of code of practice to guide their dealings with the financial community and govern the release of company information. The code will apply to all listed companies, and they will be expected to comment on compliance or otherwise in their annual reports. It was agreed to by the BIA, the London Stock Exchange and UK banks and financial institutions. The decision to draft the code followed charges in 1998 that British Biotech plc had
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
LONDON - The Wellcome Trust is to put #10 million (US$16.5 million) into a UK project to identify all cancer genes, and said all the information will be put in the public domain. The Cancer Genome Project will be led by Michael Stratton and Richard Wooster of the Institute of Cancer in London, who discovered the breast cancer gene BRCA2, and will be based at the Sanger Centre in Cambridge, which has a leading role in the Human Genome Project (HGP). The cancer project will provide one of the
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
BERLIN - The liver disease company Hepavec AG last week signed an exclusive option agreement with the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to evaluate sheep adenovirus as vectors for the gene therapy treatment of liver diseases. Hepavec, of Berlin, was founded in 1996 to develop novel gene- and cell-based products for currently incurable malignant, inborn or acquired liver diseases with a poor prognosis, such as liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
OTTAWA, Ontario - Verotoxins (VT) are a family of potent subunit toxins produced by certain E. coli bacteria commonly involved in illnesses such as hemolytic uremic syndrome. Despite their clinical significance, researchers have discovered that VTs also can be used to destroy cancer cells in bone marrow and other tissues. This novel approach has been demonstrated by scientists at Princess Margaret Hospital's Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto and the Cross Cancer Institute and the University
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
LONDON - The molecular features that account for the therapeutic effects of the benzodiazepine drugs - and their unwanted side effects - are now better understood, following an elegant study by researchers in Switzerland using genetically modified mice. Their discovery is expected to give a huge impetus to the search for more specific drugs to treat conditions such as insomnia, anxiety and epilepsy. Uwe Rudolph, lecturer in pharmacology and toxicology at the Institute of Pharmacology and the
BioWorld International | Wednesday, October 27, 1999
LONDON - Shares in Vanguard Medica plc fell by 51.5 pence to #1.45 last week when the FDA asked for further non-clinical data to support the approval of frovatriptan for the treatment of migraine. It will take nine months to complete the further toxicological studies requested by the FDA. A spokesman for Guildford-based Vanguard told BioWorld International, "Frovatriptan is highly non-toxic as a compound, and on advice, the long-term toxicology was done at 100 times the human dose, which seems