Aided by a generous dollop of government cash, a French consortium of biotechnology companies and academic medical centers is investing €80 million (US$104 million) to develop an industrial-scale facility for the production of cell therapy, including stem cell therapy.

Covagen AG signed its first drug discovery deal last week, a pact worth potentially up to €112.25 million (US$146 million) with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. that involves its Fynomer protein scaffold technology.

The management of Dutch drug delivery specialist OctoPlus NV agreed to a €27.4 million (US$35.8 million) cash offer from Indian generics firm Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd.

LONDON – There's a race to market for a new generation of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) drugs with Actelion Ltd. announcing it has filed for FDA approval of Opsumit (macitentan) and Bayer Healthcare revealing positive Phase III data for riociguat and promising global filings in the first half of 2013.

• Chiesi Group, of Parma, Italy, said it completed a Phase I trial of inhaled PDE4 inhibitor CHF 6001 that showed the drug was well tolerated up to the highest doses administered, in single and multiple dose parts of the study.

In an eagerly awaited milestone for the company – and for Belgian biotech – the FDA recently approved ThromboGenics NV's biologic drug Jetrea (ocriplasmin) for treating symptomatic vitreomacular adhesion (VMA).

• BioLineRx Ltd., of Jerusalem, said a recent analysis of data from its Phase IIb EAGLE trial testing orally available GABA-enhanced antipsychotic BL-1020 in schizophrenia indicated that the drug demonstrated a significant increase in efficacy at improving cognitive impairment associated with the condition, as compared to the original analysis of the study.

LONDON – Addex Therapeutics SA raised $10.3 million in a private placement, bolstering the balance sheet as it begins serious negotiations on partnering lead asset dipraglurant and awaits data from a Phase IIa trial of ADX71149 in treating schizophrenia.

Genmedica Therapeutics SL raised €12 million (US$15.5 million) in a Series B round to move its first-in-class drug candidate, GMC-252, into a Phase I trial in Type II diabetes.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) took extraordinary steps toward data transparency last week, disclosing plans to accelerate its "open innovation" approach to R&D by allowing researchers access to detailed patient-level data underlying clinical trials both in approved medicines and failed investigational compounds.