Archive: Company News
Company News: Lead Pharma to Partner with Sanofi on Development of Treatments for Autoimmune Diseases
– R&D collaboration and license agreement may yield potential first-in-class oral anti-ROR gamma (t) therapies
Lead Pharma, a pharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer, today announced that it has entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Sanofi to discover, develop and commercialize small molecule therapies directed against the nuclear hormone receptor ROR gamma (t) to treat a broad range of autoimmune disorders, including common diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.
Researchers have identified 80 to 100 different autoimmune disorders and suspect at least an additional 40 diseases of being driven by immune function. These diseases are chronic and can be life-threatening.
Under the terms of the agreement, Lead Pharma will receive an upfront payment and is eligible to receive research, development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments. Further details of the financial terms have not been disclosed. Sanofi is responsible for clinical development and will have worldwide marketing and commercialization rights to any products that may be developed as a result of the collaboration. Lead Pharma is entitled to receive royalty payments on global sales from any such products.
Company News: Curetis Presents Product Updates at Intensive Care Conference
– Multiple Unyvero product launches planned for 2015
– Clinical trial aimed at US FDA clearance of Unyvero adapted to reflect most recent FDA guideline issued in Q3-2014
Curetis AG, a developer of next-level molecular diagnostic solutions, today announced the presentation of its product range at Germany’s biggest congress on intensive medicine and intensive care, Symposium Intensivmedizin + Intensivpflege, in Bremen from February 18-20, 2015. Curetis will be exhibiting the Unyvero Solution at booth #N27, hall 4 at Messe & Congress Centrum Bremen. Curetis is also providing an update on its pipeline of new products to be launched in 2015.
By the end of 2014, the installed base of Curetis´ Unyvero Solution has grown to more than 60 systems world-wide. Unyvero is a versatile hardware platform for the detection of a broad panel of bacteria, fungi and antibiotic resistances from a single sample in one run. At present, cartridges for pneumonia testing (Unyvero P50) and for implant & tissue infections (Unyvero i60 ITI) are available in Europe. The company is expecting the European launch of its enhanced and expanded Unyvero P55 Pneumonia application in the spring of 2015.
By mid 2015, Curetis also anticipates data from an updated i60 ITI application Cartridge. Moreover, the company is planning the launch of a comprehensive blood culture panel combining Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogen markers as well as resistance markers by the end of 2015 in Europe.
The company also announced an update on its US trial of the Unyvero LRT lower respiratory tract infection application. Curetis has adapted its FDA trial design to reflect the new guidelines issued by the FDA for multiplexed infectious diseases tests and will re-initiate prospective sample measurement once the enhanced and expanded P55 Pneumonia Cartridge is available as LRT-labeled test cartridges for the US FDA trial. Patient sample collection with the updated LRT application based on the P55 assay is expected to start mid-2015.
Curetis has decided to un-blind all data generated in its FDA trial to date and has engaged its network of US trial sites to continue collecting retrospective specimen. Data from the previous LRT study based on the P50 panel will be analyzed and published in a peer-reviewed format.
The new FDA guideline reduces the minimum number of required prospective patient samples to 1,500, limits requirements for prospective samples to only specificity endpoints, allows testing of retrospectively collected patient samples for sensitivity endpoints, and provides clarity on positive and negative control samples. Based on the adapted design and a start of patient sample collection with the new LRT55 application, which is anticipated by mid-2015, Curetis is expecting completion of patient enrolment in the first half of 2016, with subsequent filing with the FDA.
Company News: Peter Zerhouni new CEO of InDex Pharmaceuticals
InDex Pharmaceuticals today announced that the Board of Directors has named Peter Zerhouni as new CEO. Peter Zerhouni comes from a position as CEO at Diamyd Medical AB where he has been instrumental in bringing the company’s business and clinical trials forward. He will succeed Jesper Wiklund, who has led the company since 2011.
Peter Zerhouni has a combined financial and biotechnology background with both biology and MBA degrees from the University of Lund in Sweden and the University of California, Berkeley, USA. Peter is since 2011 CEO of the publicly listed life science company Diamyd Medical AB where he also has been head of Business Development. He was a driving force behind one of the largest biotech out-licensing deals in Sweden in 2010. Peter has previously held various positions at ING Bank in Brussels and Amsterdam.
InDex Pharmaceuticals’ current CEO, Jesper Wiklund, has decided to leave the company to take on a position as Managing Director Europe at Oberland Capital, a life science focused investment firm based in the United States.
Peter Zerhouni takes over as CEO from April 1st, 2015.
Company News: Merus starts Phase I/II clinical trial for MCLA-128, an ADCC-enhanced bispecific antibody for solid tumors
– First patient dosed in trial with potent bispecific antibody overcoming resistance to HER2-targeted therapies –
Merus B.V., a leader in developing best-in-class bispecific antibody therapeutics to treat cancer patients, today announced the initiation of a phase I/II clinical study of MCLA-128 for the treatment of solid tumors. MCLA-128 is an ADCC-enhanced, full-length IgG bispecific antibody that simultaneously targets the growth factor receptors HER2 and HER3.
The trial is an open-label, European multi-center dose escalation study to assess the safety, tolerability and anti-tumor activity of MCLA-128. The first part of the study is designed as a dose escalation study, followed by a second part to further characterize the safety, tolerability and clinical efficacy of MCLA-128. Initially, the study will enroll 52 patients with advanced epithelial tumors. Primary endpoint is safety; secondary endpoints include, among others, the immunogenicity of MCLA-128 as well as anti-tumor response and clinical benefit.