Transgene SA hopes interim data from a Phase II trial of its therapeutic vaccine for treating hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, TG4040, is sufficient to secure a deal for its further development.
LONDON – Pfizer Inc. is scrapping development of OAP-189, an obesity drug originally discovered by UK company Thiakis Ltd., and said it intends to divest the program, with implications for the future milestones due to Imperial Innovations Group plc, the former majority owner of Thiakis.
LONDON – Synairgen plc delivered positive data in a Phase II trial of SGN001, a therapy intended to protect asthmatics from the serious worsening of symptoms that can occur when they catch colds or other respiratory virus infections, and is now prospecting for a commercial partner.
• BioAlliance Pharma SA, of Paris, said more than 30 percent of its planned patients have been enrolled in the Phase II trial testing clonidine Lauriad and, to date, there have been no reports of any particular toxicity related to the product. BioAlliance now is planning to enlarge the trial to accelerate recruitment, which should be finalized in 2013. Clonidine Lauriad is in development for treating oral mucositis.
Genzyme unveiled new disability data from the Care MS II Phase III head-to-head trial of its CD52-targeting antibody, Lemtrada (alemtuzumab), which confirmed its superiority over Rebif (interferon beta-1a) in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) who had relapsed on prior therapy.
A recent study linked the action of two proteins found in the mammalian brain to provide a better understanding of how the brain regulates the activity of neurons to protect them from damage. That discovery could one day lead to new therapies for conditions such as stroke and epilepsy.
Newly formed Galecto Biotech AB is taking a distinctive approach to inhibiting galectin-3, a newly emerging target in several disease areas, and to tackling idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) as its lead indication.
LONDON – The gene therapy Glybera has been rejected for the third time, despite the fact that the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human use (CHMP) last week voted 16 to 15 in favor of approving the treatment for ultrarare inherited disorder lipoprotein lipase deficiency.
In a second round of job cuts inside 12 months, Addex Therapeutics SA is seeking around 28 redundancies from its work force and is planning to intensify its use of outsourced R&D services.
LONDON – MRC Technology Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), is now making its commercialization services available to medical charities, in a move it hopes will improve translation of the £1 billion-plus (US$ 1.6 billion) per annum they spend on research.
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