Third collaboration between Novacta Therapeutics and O2h

On December 14 2009 Novacta Therapeutics and O2h announced a multi FTE chemistry collaboration to support their internal drug discovery efforts. This is the third successive collaboration over the last three years.

Pfizer looks to boost its business through copied biotechnology drugs

According to a blog posting by Shannon Pettypiece on Bloomberg, Pfizer is hoping to boost its business by making cheaper copies of pricey, injectable biotechnology drugs. Among the drugs it hopes to provide copies of in the next four to five years are Amgen’s anemia therapy Epogen and Sanofi-aventis SA’s blood thinner Lovenox, evntually [...]

Bioinformatics alliance between Aditi Technologies and Microsoft BioIT Alliance

On December 2009 the software company Aditi Technologies and Microsoft BioIT Alliance announced their strategic partnership  to extend bioinformatics services. This alliance will leverage Aditi’s superlative product development capability, domain knowledge and best practices know-how.

XOMA’s NASDAQ delisting saga continues

The on-off saga of XOMA’s delisting continues with news that XOMA has received a letter from NASDAQ indicating that the exchange has concluded that XOMA’s previously-announced common share financing completed on September 30, 2009 did not comply with NASDAQ’s Listing Rule that requires that a company obtain shareholder approval for the issuance of common shares [...]

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals and Handok sign alliance for apaziquone

Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc and Handok Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd signed a collaboration agreement on November 23 2009 for the development and commercialisation of its apaziquone in South Korea. Apaziquone is an antineoplastic agent currently being investigatedin phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer by intravesical instillation.
Spectrum is to receive an upfront [...]

Innate Pharma and Celgene collaborate on clinical trial of lenalidomide

On 19 November 2009 Innate Pharma and Celgene Corporation has agreed to collaborate to evaluate the potential clinical synergy of the combination treatment regimen of lenalidomide (REVLIMID) plus IPH 2101 in patients with multiple myeloma who have failed first-line therapy. The companies are to co-design the trial and Celgene will provide supplies of lenalidomide. [...]

Sanofi-Aventis interested in setting up venture capital fund to promote strategic partnerships

On November 10 2009 Christopher Viehbacher, the Chief Executive of Sanofi-Aventis SA indicated to a “partnering meeting” hosted at a Sanofi facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company is interested in setting up a venture capital fund to help develop strategic partnerships with drug-developers. This is part of the company’s drive to move away from [...]

Alliance between Sanofi-Aventis and Micromet

Sanofi-Aventis and Micromet signed a global collaboration and license agreement on October 30 2009 to develop BiTE, a new antibody that will activate patients’ T cells to seek out and destroy cancer cells. Under this agreement, Micromet is responsible for the discovery, research and development of the BiTE antibody, including Phase I trials and [...]

Distribution agreement between Broncus Technologies and Medico Hirata

On November 2 2009 the medical device company Broncus Technologies Inc announced it has entered into an exclusive agreement with the Japanese medical devices company Medico’s Hirata as the sole distributor of their LungPoint system and Yield catheters in Japan. LungPoint is a computer-assisted image-guided navigation system for the lungs and is used for planning [...]

Eisai and Quintiles partner to develop Eisai’s anticancer compounds

Eisai has announced that it has concluded a strategic collaboration agreement with Quintiles to develop six anticancer compounds in its oncology pipeline to further expedite its Product Creation Strategy for the oncology-related disease area. Eisai and Quintiles will share the clinical development risks in developing Eisai’s six oncology candidate compounds, which include eribulin mesylate (E7389), [...]