LONDON – Cancer vaccines specialist immatics Biotechnologies GmbH released new Phase II data showing advanced colorectal cancer patients who mount an immune response to its IMA910 vaccine have significantly longer overall survival than those receiving standard of care.

LONDON – The discovery that hepatitis C viruses (HCVs) probably use the same molecular switch to control their replication could lead to new treatments for that infection.

The strategic alliance between BioInvent International AB and ThromboGenics NV received a double whammy, as the two companies halted development of an anticoagulation antibody, TB-402, following unfavorable data from a Phase IIb head-to-head trial against Xarelto (rivaroxaban), while Roche Holding AG decided to exit a three-way alliance to develop an angiogenesis inhibitor, TB-403.

• Bionomics Ltd., of Adelaide, Australia, said it launched a Phase I/II trial of BNC105 in women with ovarian cancer. Up to 134 patients are expected to be enrolled in the study, which is designed to test the vascular-disrupting agent in combination with current standard therapies carboplatin and gemcitabine.

Only weeks after disclosing its goal of expanding into emerging markets in its 2012-2014 Mid-Range Plan, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. made a move in Brazil with the acquisition of Multilab Industria e Comercio de Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda. for BRL500 million (US$249.9 million) up front and up to BRL40 million in future milestones.

LONDON – The toll the financial crisis continues to have on biotech is exposed in a new survey of the sector in France, showing that despite strong fundamentals, companies are being starved of the cash they need to advance.

Veloxis Pharmaceuticals A/S is betting the farm on its late-stage organ transplant rejection drug LCP-Tacro and exiting from all other development activities in an effort to stretch out its rapidly dwindling cash resources.

LONDON – An Italian team has unravelled the mechanism by which metformin, a common diabetes drug, helps to reduce the incidence of cancer in those who take it.

LONDON – A European initiative to tackle the rising tide of antibiotic resistance has kicked off, with GlaxoSmithKline plc putting up a Phase IIa compound as the first that will be advanced in clinical development as part of the public-private program.

NeuroSearch A/S's task of securing backing for an additional Phase III trial of its Huntington's disease drug, Huntexil (pridopidine), has gotten a bit more difficult, following the release of data from a multiple-ascending-dose trial indicating that the compound causes QT interval prolongation in healthy volunteers.