More than 30 years after entering the scene as a first-generation monoclonal antibody pioneer, Morphosys AG is to be acquired by Novartis AG for €2.7 billion (US$2.9 billion). The all-cash deal, announced after Nasdaq closed on Feb. 5, will see Novartis paying €68 per share, a premium of 94% to the average daily price in the month leading up to Jan. 25, when rumors of a takeover started swirling.
Cyted Ltd. received U.S. FDA 510(k) clearance for its Endosign capsule technology, a non-endoscopic capsule sponge device used to collect pan-esophageal samples to detect esophageal pre-cancer and other conditions. The company believes that the minimally invasive test will be able to help prevent deaths from esophageal cancer when offered as a screening test to people on long-term medication for heartburn.
Dong-A ST Co. Ltd. has reported new eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α kinase 4 (GCN2) inhibitors as potentially useful for the treatment of cancer, infections, neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases.
Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc. has led to the identification of new interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK-4) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune and inflammatory disorders.
Increasing knowledge on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) proliferation processes suggests that targeting not only leukemic cells but also the tumor microenvironment (TME) and their interactions across drug combination strategies may lead to advances in this complex setting.
Researchers from Sun Yat-Sen University and MD Anderson Cancer Center have compared the proteins secreted by hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells in responders and nonresponders to the anti-PD-1 antibody nivolumab.
Theryq SAS and Gustave Roussy, a European center for cancer research, were given €38 million (US$40.1 million) in funding by Bpifrance, the French public sector investment bank, to further develop Flashdeep, a flash radiotherapy device that uses extremely high energy electron (VHEE) radiation to treat cancers that are resistant to traditional treatments.