LONDON – A 2.5-year investigation into the low level of uptake of biosimilars in Europe has concluded that – in the absence of automatic substitution – a hearts-and-minds education campaign covering physicians, payers and patients is the only lever that can be pulled at a pan-European level to drive the growth of the market. Read More

LONDON – A more detailed understanding of the workings of the membrane-bound pump that many bacteria use to eject antibiotics will, researchers hope, lead to ways of making bacteria once again susceptible to antibiotics that currently fail to kill them. Read More

Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) Ltd. entered a target validation deal with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH that will offer near-term revenues, with the added prospect of long-term development milestones and product royalties. Read More

Genticel SA raised €18.2 million (US$23.6 million) in a Series C round led by Wellington Partners, to move ProCervix, its bivalent therapeutic vaccine for combating human papillomavirus (HPV) infection into Phase II trials. Read More

After struggling to maintain momentum and keep going during the capital markets crisis, Verona Pharma plc's recently appointed CEO, Jan-Anders Karlsson, has managed to line up the financing needed to shape the company's two lead programs for partnering. Read More

DUBLIN, Ireland – Two days after the board of Elan Corp. plc unanimously rejected Royalty Pharma's $7.3 billion takeover offer, CEO Kelly Martin set out, as best he could, the contours of the company's M&A strategy during a first-quarter results call with analysts last week. Read More

• Pluristem Therapeutics Inc., of Haifa, Israel, said independent researchers from the University of Queensland, Australia, showed blood flow was maintained with no adverse hemodynamic effects following infusion of the company's placental eXpanded (PLX) cells in a human lung model of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Read More