• Amarin Corp. plc, of Dublin, Ireland, submitted a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) to the FDA seeking approval for Chemport Inc. as an additional active pharmaceutical ingredient supplier for Vascepa (icosapent ethyl).

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.

Top-line data from three Phase III trials of simeprevir (TMC435) in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infection appear to confirm what Medivir AB has always maintained – that it has a potentially best-in-class protease inhibitor on its hands.

In a discovery that has important implications for the future of HIV therapy, an international team of researchers has identified the molecule by which the virus enters the immune cells known as dendritic cells.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.