DUBLIN – The ongoing delay in appointing a new executive director to the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), Europe’s €3.3 billion (US$2.1 billion) public-private partnership on drug research, shows no immediate signs of ending, while its interim director, EC official Irene Norstedt, has defended the initiative against a major media onslaught led by Germany’s influential current affairs magazine Der Spiegel.
PARIS – Better patient safety has been the single greatest benefit of Europe’s system of pharmaceuticals regulation and legislation over the past 50 years, according to an audience vote at a Regulatory Town Hall meeting, which kicked off proceedings at the Drug Information Association’s (DIA) 27th annual European meeting at Le Palais des Congrès in Paris, Monday.
DUBLIN – Nabriva Therapeutics AG is getting up to $120 million in a staged series B round to progress its pipeline of pleuromutilin antibiotics. A first tranche of $50 million will kickstart phase III development of its lead compound, lefamulin (BC 3781), in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).
Shares in Morphosys AG dropped 20 percent last week as Celgene Corp. walked away from an alliance to develop its anti-CD38 antibody MOR202 in multiple myeloma.
DUBLIN – Shares in Innate Pharma SA fell 14 percent Thursday on news that a data safety and monitoring board (DSMB) called a halt to one treatment arm of a phase II trial in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) testing lirilumab (IPH2102, BMS-986015), an immunotherapeutic antibody that targets inhibitory killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) expressed by natural killer (NK) cells.
DUBLIN – Investor appetite for European biotech shows no sign of relenting, as Malin Corp. plc and Nordic Nanovector ASA priced their respective IPOs Friday, which will take in $415 million in total.
DUBLIN – Lyxumia (lixisenatide), the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonist, which Zealand Pharma A/S out-licensed to Sanofi SA, is on track for a third-quarter new drug application (NDA) filing, following a cardiovascular safety study in which the drug had a similar profile to placebo.
DUBLIN – Danish biotech bellwether Genmab A/S and Swedish specialty pharma firm Pharmalink AB both added new preclinical projects to their respective pipelines Wednesday.
DUBLIN – Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., looks finally to have gotten its bid for Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. over the line, but it has paid a high price to pull off the deal.
