LONDON – The French vaccines manufacturing technology company Vivalis SA is acquiring Austrian vaccines discoverer and developer Intercell AG, of Vienna, in an all-share deal valued at €133 million (US$175 million). Read More
It's a cell-eat-cell world in there. And apparently, that's a good thing, too. "In the body, almost any cell can eat other cells," Kodi Ravichandran told BioWorld Today. "Especially their neighbors who are dying." Read More
Six years after building an acquisition-led position in the research and diagnostic antibody space, MorphoSys AG is exiting the field, via a €53 million (US$69.7 million) cash sale of its Abd Serotec unit to Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. Read More
Just one month after devastating news that its gastroparesis candidate, TZP-102, missed its endpoint in a Phase IIb trial, Tranzyme Pharma Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., reported that its a second Phase IIb trial of the same drug was being discontinued after an interim futility analysis showed a large placebo effect and no treatment effect. Read More
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved a final order settling charges that Parsippany, N.J.-based Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Actavis Inc., of Zug, Switzerland, would have been anticompetitive in the markets for 21 current and future generic drugs used to treat a range of conditions from hypertension and diabetes to anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Read More
• GeneNews Ltd., of Toronto, raised $7.7 million from a nonbrokered private placement of its common shares. To meet demand, the size of the offering was increased from the $6 million target disclosed earlier this month. Read More
• ProMining Theraeutics Ltd., of Jerusalem, began a new collaboration with Roche AG, of Basel, Switzerland, for development of small-molecule therapeutics for Type II diabetes. Read More
• Fibrocell Science Inc., of Exton, Pa., said it plans to start a Phase II trial to test azficel-T in treating restrictive burn scars in the first quarter of 2013. Read More
• Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, said its U.S. subsidiary entered a deal with Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd., a subsidiary of Mumbai, India-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. for the sale of the non-Colcrys (colchicine, USP), generic business of URL Pharma Inc. Read More
A year and a half after Roche AG handed back rights, Evotec AG has found a new home for its NMDA antagonist portfolio, in a licensing deal with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. worth a potential $75 million up to launch. In addition, there will be milestones payable on further products and/or indications, plus $100 million in commercial milestones on any products that get to market. Read More
