Switzerland Archives

News and Trends 18 Aug 2015

Fresh money for Kuros to Speed up Bone repair

Kuros Biosurgery raised CHF15 million (€13.8M) to bring its late stage bone-repairing agents to the market. A second financing round is already planned for later this year. Bones can suffer a lot during surgeries, sports or severe accidents. To accelerate its healing, Swiss Kuros has established a late stage pipeline of bone-repairing agents. The company was […]

August 18, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 14 Aug 2015

Roche’s €382M Acquisition to Expand its Fight against Drug-Resistant Bacteria

The biggest biotech company worldwide has just become even bigger: Roche acquired the Californian GeneWEAVE BioSciences, a privately held company that developed a cool technology to diagnose drug-resistant bacteria. For the integration, Roche shells out $190M (€171M) upfront and up to $235M (€211M) product-related milestones. GeneWEAVE is an American company that developed a technology which is […]

August 14, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 13 Aug 2015

Roche abandons Wilex to Make Way for Immuno-Oncology

Roche just dropped a first-generation antibody-based treatment preventing cancer cells from proliferating. Interestingly enough, the partner of the collaboration, Wilex’ subsidiary Heidelberg Pharma, stated the research “progressed well, on schedule, and in a mutually satisfactory manner”. What happened? Heidelberg Pharma is a German company that discovers new drugs using its platform technology for antibody drug […]

August 13, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 12 Aug 2015

Roche and Clovis combine drugs to fight lung cancer, the most common cancer worldwide

Roche‘s subsidiary Genentech joined forces with NASDAQ-listed Clovis Oncology to evaluate a novel combination therapy for the treatment of advanced EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Its anti PD-L1 cancer immunotherapy and Clovis’ rociletinib will enter Phase Ib/II in 2015. With 1.35 million new cases annually, lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide. In […]

August 12, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 12 Aug 2015

CRISPR Therapeutics reinforces its Team with Top Executives from Pfizer and McKinsey

A new strategic movement in the hot CRISPR field: CRISPR Therapeutics ramps up its leadership team with Samarth Kulkarni as its new Chief Business Officer and Michael Bruce as Senior Vice President to moderate program portfolio and alliance management. In the meantime, CRISPR’s main competitor EditasMedicine procured €108M to accelerate its CRISPR-based therapies in clinical state. […]

August 12, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 29 Jul 2015

Effective Antibody from a Patient recovering from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

Two months after the outbreak of the coronavirus in South Korea, researchers are presenting first results of an effective treatment for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The Swiss biotech Humabs BioMed has been able to isolate an effective antibody from a cured patient that should now be further developed under a non-profit base. In 2012, […]

July 29, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 27 Jul 2015

Roche exits €940M discovery alliance with Molecular Partners

Roche left the collaboration with Molecular Partners, walking away from a potential cancer treatment using the DARPin technology. The collaboration, entered in 2013, was worth up to €940M. Molecular Partners is a Swiss company focusing on immuno-oncology. The company has developed a platform generating small proteins called DARPins (Designed Ankyrin Repeat Proteins). These can target […]

July 27, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 26 Jul 2015

Roche’s Deal pushes Vifor’s split from Galenica

Switzerland’s biggest pharmacy network, Galenica, wants to split off the specialty pharma company Vifor Pharma. This could be done earlier than expected, thanks to a lucrative Roche deal. Galenica has made large investments in the pharma business over the recent years. Vifor Pharma is already a world leader when it comes to iron deficiency treatments. In […]

July 26, 2015 - 1 minutemin - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 17 Jul 2015

AC Immune receives Milestone Payment for Alzheimer Antibody

AC Immune received a first milestone payment from Roche’s subsidiary Genentech. The latter picked up a potential Alzheimer’s drug worth developing towards clinical trials. The collaboration began in 2012 with Genentech’s promising milestone payments amounting to more than €384M (CHF400M). Alzheimer’s disease will be one of the biggest burdens of tomorrow’s society showing a dramaticaly […]

July 17, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 15 Jul 2015

Ferring bets on bacteriophages to treat inflammatory bowel disease

Bacteriophages have been instinctively killing bacteria for millions of years. These natural bacteria predators represent a potential alternative to antibiotics and Ferring Pharmaceuticals wants to use them against inflammatory bowel disease. The Swiss pharma joined forces with phages specialist Intralytix to manufacture these viruses for clinical purposes. Bacteriophages can be very selective when it comes […]

July 15, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 10 Jul 2015

Sanofi to solve Growing Resistance against Malarial Treatments

Sanofi extended its collaboration with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) to jointly develop a new combination therapy against malaria, the deadliest parasitic disease worldwide. The difficult access and the fear of a growing resistance to the existing treatments highlight the importance of this partnership. Atemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) are at this moment the most efficient […]

July 10, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 8 Jul 2015

Genmab and Novartis look for the European approval of their leukemia candidate

Genmab is seeking the European authorization for Arzerra, a treatment co-developed with Novartis. The submission is based on the candidate’s positive results in its Phase III in patients with leukemia. Arzerra, the commercial name for ofatumumab, is a human monoclonal antibody that directs the body’s immune system to fight normal and cancerous B-lymphocytes. The drug […]

July 8, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Lourdes Riquelme

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