LONDON – The discovery of a genetic variant that protects against coronary heart disease has, at long last, allowed scientists to say for certain that an inflammatory pathway plays an important role in causing that condition.
The Wellcome Trust is setting up a new for-profit investment firm that will have £200 million (US$317 million) on hand to pursue opportunities in health care and in life sciences in the UK and other parts of Europe.
LONDON – ThromboGenics NV is getting €75 million (US$98.4 million) up front as part of a €375 million-plus-royalties deal signed last week with leading eye care specialist Alcon Inc. for the ex-U.S. rights to ocriplasmin, providing the cash ThromboGenics needs to go it alone in commercializing the vitreous macular adhesion (VMA) treatment in the U.S.
LONDON – Novabiotics Ltd. is poised to close a $15 million funding round that will enable it to move its lead antimicrobial peptide product, Novexatin, into a Phase IIb trial in nail fungal infection onchomycosis and to advance its second program, Lynovex, into a Phase IIa trial in cystic fibrosis.
LONDON – A protein known to coordinate degradation of waste products in the liver is also present in the cells of blood vessels and could play a similar role in protecting the body from chemicals that cause cardiovascular disease, researchers have found.
Johnson & Johnson, in a sense, is going head to head with itself by pitting its investigational protease inhibitor, TMC435, which it in-licensed from Medivir AB, against telaprevir, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug it markets as Incivo in Europe, Latin America, India and several other regions, in a Phase III trial.
DUNDEE, Scotland – Dundee University is renewing its pharma collaboration in protein phosphorylation and the kinase enzymes that control the central aspect of cellular function for the fourth time, in a £15 million (US$23.5 million) plus fees-for-service deal, which will extend the long-running program until 2016.
• Cytheris SA, of Paris, said a Phase IIa trial (INSPIRE-2) of CYT107 (recombinant interleukin-7) for reconstitution of CD4 T cells in chronic HIV-1 immunological nonresponder patients showed that the drug expanded those cells in the gut mucosa. The companys said it believes the drug may be able to restore the immune system in chronic HIV infection.
Shares in NicOx SA rose more than 44 percent Tuesday on news that its glaucoma drug BOL-303259-X, which is partnered with Bausch & Lomb Inc., met the primary endpoint in a Phase IIb trial and will progress to a global Phase III development program within a year.
RSS