Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - March 2008 - (Page 6)

6 News & Analysis March 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe News & Analysis For more on these news stories and all the latest breaking pharma news, look at our website www.pharmexeceurope.com, which now features daily updates, interactive surveys and dedicated sections for your particular area of interest. NEWS Essilor (France) is expanding into Bulgaria. The company’s new subsidiary, Essilor Bulgaria Eood, has acquired Optymal Ood, which currently distributes Essilor lenses and instruments in Bulgaria and has sales of nearly €1 million. Following the December 2007 strategic review of its business, Ardana (Scotland) is seeking either a sale or merger partner to maximise the value of its pipeline. The biotech has retained Piper Jaffray as advisors. Alapis SA (Greece) has established a new Polish subsidiary. Veterin Poland Sp. Zo.o., headquartered in Warsaw, will be engaged in the production and trade of pharmaceutical and chemical products, cosmetics, food products and so on. In another round of industry job losses, Pharmexa A/S (Denmark) is to cut one fifth of its workforce. The company — which in February secured buyers for just 18.2 million of its 69 million new shares, raising SEK 80.2 million (€8.6 million) — hopes the move will reduce the company’s net loss this year to SEK 150 million (€16.1 million). The company is to move to smaller facilities and will Ablynx (Belgium) has received an undisclosed milestone payment from Novartis for an exclusive research license in one of the programmes that is a component of their ongoing R&D alliance. The companies are collaborating to discover and develop therapeutic Nanobodies for a range of disease areas, against a number of targets that are difficult to address with conventional antibodies and their fragments. For more finance and M&A news, articles and comment, visit www.pharmexeceurope.com/ Finance Artes Graficas Nekar SA (Spain) has joined Europe-wide pharma packaging and service alliance Copapharm sponsored by continue to develop GV1001, a peptide vaccine that has entered Phase III trials in pancreatic cancer and is in Phase II for liver cancer. For more corporate strategy news, articles and comment, visit www.pharmexeceurope.com/ Corporate D. Anderson & Company (DAC), a global patient recruitment and retention provider for the clinical trials industry, has opened an office in Windsor, UK, to serve the growing international demand for recruitment and retention programmes. ProStrakan Group plc (Scotland) has expanded into the US, establishing its new American headquarters in Bedminster, NJ. ProStrakan’s first US product, Sancuso (a transdermal patch to prevent the side-effects of nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy), is currently under consideration for licensing by the FDA. Sanofi Pasteur MSD (UK) has applied for the European licensure for the first seasonal influenza vaccine delivered by intradermal (ID) microinjection. The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has accepted the filing and started its review. The ID vaccine generated a superior level of seroprotective immune response against all tested influenza strains, compared with standard intramuscular (IM) influenza vaccination, in participants over 60 years of age. If approved, Sanofi Pasteur MSD will market the vaccine within its territory. Outside this territory, the vaccine will be marketed by sanofi pasteur, one of Sanofi Pasteur MSD’s parent companies. For more R&D news, articles and comment, visit www.pharmexeceurope.com/R&D mitochondrial dysfunction to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD). Trophos has identified a family of compounds that enhance the survival of motor neurons in models of motor neuron degeneration. The two Trophos compounds to be studied have been extensively characterised, and one of them, TRO19622, has already demonstrated a very good safety profile in human clinical trials. Should either compound show potential therapeutic benefit in the PD model, it could progress to clinical testing in patients with PD. Servier (France) has inaugurated a medicinal chemistry research centre in Hungary. Staffed by over fifty researchers, the Budapest-based centre will be an integral part of the Institut de Recherche Servier (IDRS) and will participate in IDRS research programmes, with a particular focus on metabolic diseases and oncology. The European Commission has approved Galvus (vildagliptin) as a new oral treatment for type 2 diabetes patients, paving the way for launches in Europe. This regulatory approval applies in all 27 countries of the European Union as well as in Norway and Iceland and comes after changes updating the EU label were proposed by Novartis regarding the administration of Galvus. For more regulatory and legal news, articles and comment, visit www.pharmexeceurope.com/ Regulatory info@clinphone.com www.clinphone.com Europe SCRL. The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) has awarded Trophos SA (France) a Therapeutics Development Initiative grant to pursue the evaluation of compounds preventing http://www.pharmexeceurope.com http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/corporate http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/corporate http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/Finance http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/R&D http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/Finance http://clinphone.com http://clinphone.com http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/Regulatory http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/Regulatory

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - March 2008

Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - March 2008
Contents
From the Editor
News and Analysis
Brussels Report
Calendar
The Next Wave of Pharma Talent
The New World Order
Share of Voice to Share of Care
Notes on a Meeting
The Malta Story
Motivation Across Borders
The Mix
No GUTs, No Global
Green is Good
Last Word

Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - March 2008