Eurobench.com

voda 7 juni 2011 21:15

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Biogen Seeks Deals to Build Up MS Drugs

By Sasha Damouni - Jun 7, 2011 7:56 PM GMT+0200

Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB), the world’s largest maker of multiple sclerosis medicines, is on the hunt for new compounds to treat MS and other neurodegenerative diseases, and may purchase companies outright or partner with them, the company’s research chief said.

Biogen is “very actively” reviewing licensing and acquisition possibilities with companies that have drugs in the first two stages of testing needed for regulatory approval, Doug Williams, executive vice president of the Weston, Massachusetts- based biotechnology company, said today in an interview. Treatments for immunology and hematology are areas of interest, he said.

Williams formerly was chief executive officer of ZymoGenetics Inc., acquired last year by New York-based Bristol- Myers Squibb Co. for $725 million. While he declined to comment on specific targets, Elan Corp., based in Dublin, and Acorda Therapeutics Inc. (ACOR), of Hawthorne, N.Y., were listed by Michael Yee, an RBC Capital Markets analyst based in San Francisco.

“We see a lot of things, and people know that we have access to capital to put to use for these types of transactions,” Williams said. “We are recognized as being the leader in the space and have the wherewithal to get transactions done.”

Shares Rise

Biogen gained 58 cents to $93.74 at 1:47 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The stock has risen 94 percent in the past 12 months before today. Acorda increased 99 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $31.87. Elan’s American depositary receipts gained 57 cents, or 6.1 percent, to $9.94 on the New York Stock Exchange. Each receipt represents one ordinary company share.

As of March 31, Biogen had $791 million cash and near-term cash, according to the company.

Acquiring either Elan, with a market cap of $5.5 billion, or Acorda, at $1.2 billion, would make “smart financial sense because these products are low-hanging fruit that add revenue and meaningful profitability, EPS accretion, and generate attractive” return on investment for shareholders, Yee wrote in a May 13 note.

Niamh Lyons, a spokeswoman for Elan, declined to comment on mergers and acquisitions possibilities. Jeff Macdonald, a spokesman for Acorda, also declined to comment.

Current Partnerships

Biogen is partnered with Elan on the MS drug Tysabri, which generated $900 million in 2010, and Acorda for outside-the-U.S. marketing efforts of Fampyra, which had $133 million in U.S. sales.

MS affects about 2.1 million people in the world, with about 400,000 patients in the U.S., according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The chronic disease attacks the central nervous system and can cause numbness in limbs, paralysis and vision loss. The most-common form of MS is relapsing-remitting, characterized by flare-ups followed by periods of recovery.

Biogen increased 39 percent this year before today, with first-quarter results that showed a 15 percent increase over a year earlier in sales of its Tysabri. On April 21, its MS pill candidate, called BG-12, reduced disability progression and relapse rates more than expected in a study, spurring a 15 percent stock jump.

BG-12 may generate $2.5 billion to $3 billion in annual worldwide sales if approved, more than a previous estimate of as much as $1 billion, Ziad Bakri, a Cowen & Co. analyst, said in an interview in April.

New Data

The company plans to offer “a much deeper dive” into BG- 12 data at a medical meeting in Europe in late October, Williams said.

Williams is the second top Biogen executive to signal that the company was actively seeking acquisitions or partnerships. After the BG-12 data were released in April, Chief Financial Officer Paul Clancy said the company was seeking to expand its development pipeline.

“We have a very, very robust late-stage pipeline with BG- 12 kind of being the early read-out as it relates to the seven projects that we have in late-stage,” Clancy said then. “There is nevertheless a need to build the early stage pipeline.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sasha Damouni at sdamouni2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net.

www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-07/bio...

[verwijderd] 7 juni 2011 22:30

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...

o treat MS and other neurodegenerative diseases, and may purchase companies outright or partner with them, the company’s research chief said.

Biogen is “very actively” reviewing licensing and acquisition possibilities...

Hmmm, zou 't werken ons favoriete moleculetje.

J.

stormvogel 11 juni 2011 15:27

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News10-06-11Start-up BioTxs wint de Niaba Masterclass BioBusiness Award
DEN HAAG, 9 juni 20011 – BioTxs heeft afgelopen dinsdag de Masterclass BioBusiness Award gewonnen. De masterclass leidt jonge ondernemers op die met hun innovatieve life sciences producten bijdragen aan het economisch succes van deze snelgroeiende sector.
BioTxs is een innovatieve life sciences startup gespecialiseerd in het vroegtijdig opsporen van doorbloedingstoornissen in het hart, nog voor fatale gevolgen als een hartinfarct zichtbaar zijn. Het bedrijf heeft een unieke set biomarkers geïdentificeerd waarmee het een gepatenteerde diagnostische test ontwikkelt. Op dit moment bestaat er nog geen simpele test om deze eerste ziekteverschijnselen in bloed op te sporen. "Ik verwacht dat we met deze test
een enorme verbetering in de diagnostiek en behandeling van patiënten en een grote kostenbesparing in de medische zorg kunnen bereiken", aldus CSO Eric Duckers.

BioTxs nam het dinsdag in de finale van de Masterclass BioBusiness op tegen UbiQ, een spinoff bedrijf van het Nederlands Kanker Instituut. UbiQ ontwikkelt speciale eiwitten die kunnen worden gebruikt bij het ontwikkelen van medicijnen tegen ziektes als kanker. De twintig deelnemers aan de Masterclass BioBusiness hebben afgelopen jaar in teamverband vijf businessplannen uitgewerkt. De professionele vakjury selecteerde hieruit de twee businessplannen voor de finale. Beide plannen waren volgens de vakjury van een zeer hoog en gelijkwaardig niveau. Een nipte meerderheid van het publiek van het BioBusiness Event stemde uiteindelijk op BioTxs, dat beloond werd met een cheque van €10.000,- en een jaar gratis Niaba-lidmaatschap.

“Het winnen van de award onderstreept het potentieel van BioTxs. Ik hoop dat we snel de opbrengsten van een eerste financieringsronde kunnen toevoegen aan het geldbedrag van deze prestigieuze prijs, zodat we ons businessplan echt kunnen uitvoeren”, aldus Dharminder Chahal, CEO van BioTxs.

“Big pharma needs biotech” Jan van de Winkel, CEO Genmab

Het BioBusiness Event trok dit jaar meer dan 250 bezoekers die tijdens het interactieve programma alles te horen kregen over strategisch samenwerken in de life sciences. Een belangrijke boodschap in het plenaire gedeelte was dat ‘big pharma’ biotech nodig heeft, en andersom. Open innovatie is voor deze samenwerking van levensbelang. Samenwerken over de grenzen van de eigen organisatie heen en gebruik maken van competenties van de ander in plaats van alles zelf doen. Voor de verticaal georiënteerde grote farmabedrijven betekent dit een enorme omslag. Een omslag die grote kansen met zich meebrengt en in volle gang is, zoals blijkt uit de steeds talrijkere, vruchtbare samenwerkingsverbanden tussen farma en biotech.

Niaba ALV

In de deelsessies hield Niaba haar Algemene Ledenvergadering waarin bekend werd gemaakt dat Nettie Buitelaar (Leiden Bio Science Park) en Trinette Stolle (MSD) toe zullen treden tot het Niaba bestuur. Hans van de Berg werd benoemd tot Niaba erelid vanwege zijn grote verdiensten voor de biotech sector en zijn werk als bestuurslid van Niaba.
Source: Niaba

Category: Sector, English

Read more: www.lifescienceshealth.com/news/news-...

stormvogel 13 juni 2011 10:42

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Nangang Biotech Center Will Give a Strong Boost to the Biotech Industry

2011/06/13
Taipei, June 13, 2011 (CENS)--The establishment of Nangang biotech research center in five years will give a strong boost to the development of Taiwan`s biotech industry, whose annual output value may top NT$1 trillion, five times the existing level, said Wong Chi-huey, president of Academia Sinica, Taiwan`s foremost academic research body.

Following the conditional passage of its environment impact assessment the other day, the biotech research center will be able to break ground on its construction soon, which will entail an investment of NT$22.5 billion and is scheduled for completion in five years, capable of accommodating 2,000 researchers.

Wong noted that Taiwan`s biotech industry has strong R&D capability but lacks the mechanism for the integration and commercialization of its R&D results. In Taiwan, there are at least 50 new drugs under development now, of which 30 have obtained the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for clinical test. The biotech research center can help the 30 drugs pass the clinical test and hit the market.

In general, said Wong, under patent protection a new drug can produce annual output value of at least US$1 billion, and total output value will amount to US$30 billion, or NT$860 billion, for the aforementioned 30 drugs. Plus the existing NT$221 billion, the total annual output value of the local biotech industry will soar to NT$1 trillion.

The research center will play a role of integration, pinpointing R&D results with market potential and passing them to enterprises via the mediation of industrial incubation centers. It will also coordinate the resources of the biotech center of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan Food & Drug Administration, and the animal center of the National Science Council to assist the enterprises in commercializing the transferred technologies.

boldie 14 juni 2011 11:10

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(Adds background, analyst comment and share price from 8th paragraph on.)
By Sten Stovall
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK.LN) Tuesday said it is buying out its partner in a Chinese vaccines joint venture to further expand its presence in that lucrative emerging market.
The British-based drugmaker--one of the world's leading producers of flu vaccines--said it will pay GBP24 million for the outstanding 51% held by Shenzhen Neptunus Interlong Bio-Technique Co. Ltd in the joint venture company, Shenzhen GSK-Neptunus Biologicals Co. Ltd., or GSKNB, which the two companies launched two years ago.
When establishing the joint venture in June 2009, Glaxo said the aim was to supply seasonal, pre-pandemic and pandemic flu vaccine for China, Hong Kong and Macau. The UK group increased its initial 40% equity share to 49% in August 2010.
Glaxo said its decision to buy out its partner reflects the U.K. drugmaker's intention to further expand its vaccines presence in China by establishing local vaccine manufacturing capabilities.
The move reflects the strategy of Glaxo CEO Andrew Witty to push strongly into emerging markets and establish presences there.
"GSK has licensed more vaccines in China than any other global manufacturer and has packaged more than 100 million vaccines at our Shanghai facility," said John Lepore, vice president and general manager, biologicals and corporate of GSK China.
"Today's announcement represents an expansion of GSK's long-term commitment to vaccine supply, manufacturing and development in China."
China is the world's third-largest vaccine market. But it's still significantly underdeveloped, with annual sales of around $1 billion and double-digit annual growth, notes Matrix analyst Navid Malik.
While domestic Chinese companies have established distribution networks, these need to be leveraged by companies like Glaxo to allow them to penetrate deeply into China.
"This is likely to be a significant commercial opportunity for GSK going forward," Malik said.
Glaxo's step mirrors a growing trend of Chinese companies by large pharmaceutical groups.
In March 2011, Novartis AG (NVS) bought an 85% stake in the vaccines company Zhenjiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.
In 2007, Sanofi-Aventis SA (SNY) invested EUR70 million to establish a vaccine production plant in Shenzhen.
At the end of 2009, there were 38 locally certified manufacturers of human vaccines and 54 certified makers of animal vaccines.
Glaxo shares at 0830 GMT were up 0.7% at 1,293 pence. The stock has gained 8% over the past 12 months.
-By Sten Stovall, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9292; sten.stovall@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 14, 2011 05:01 ET (09:01 GMT)
© 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

AAND GLAXOSMITHKLINE ADR
US37733W1053
AAND GLAXOSMITHKLINE @ GBP 0.25
GB0009252882
AAND NOVARTIS SP ADR
US66987V1098
AAND NOVARTIS @ CHF 0.50 ON AAB
CH0012005267
AAND SANOFI ADR
US80105N1054
AAND SANOFI @ EUR 2
FR0000120578

voda 14 juni 2011 21:07

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Omega Pharma wil fabriek in Rotterdam sluiten
Gepubliceerd op 14 jun 2011 om 18:41 | Views: 99

NAZARETH (AFN) - Het Belgische concern Omega Pharma wil zijn fabriek in Rotterdam sluiten en de productie van de geneesmiddelen overbrengen naar de zusteronderneming in het Oostenrijkse Feldkirchen. Hierdoor verliezen 64 mensen hun baan in de Maasstad.

Omega Pharma maakte dinsdag bekend de ondernemingsraad en de werknemers hierover te hebben geïnformeerd. Het overbrengen van de productie moet in het eerste kwartaal van volgend jaar voltooid worden,

Volgens Omega Pharma is er onvoldoende zicht op een structurele winstgevendheid in Rotterdam. Het concern gaat nu besprekingen voeren over een sociaal plan.

stormvogel 15 juni 2011 08:31

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www.roche-applied-science.com/custom-...

voda 15 juni 2011 21:52

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Merck With AstraZeneca Leads Rivals-Turned-Collaborators on Cancer Drugs

By Robert Langreth and Michelle Fay Cortez - Jun 15, 2011 6:01 AM GMT+0200

Merck & Co. is teaming with AstraZeneca Plc to test two cancer drugs as a single therapy, leading a wave of alliances among rivals spurred by new evidence that multiple genetic triggers can lead to tumor growth.

At least eight drugmakers have joined forces to share treatments since Merck, of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, and London-based AstraZeneca began their effort -- now entering early efficacy tests -- in 2009, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its June 20 issue. In the past, companies seeking a therapy to complement theirs would take years to craft it internally, said Gary Gilliland, Merck’s head of oncology. Now, they are increasingly reaching out to competitors to boost the attack on cancer and speed time to market, he said.

Many new drugs work for a short time before tumors mutate and become resistant, limiting survival advances to months, not years. Only by hitting cancer from multiple angles may doctors hold it in check longer, said George Sledge Jr., an oncologist at Indiana University’s Cancer Center in Indianapolis.

Doctors need “a magic shotgun loaded with pellets aimed at multiple targets in multiple pathways,” not just a magic bullet, said Sledge, immediate past-president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, at the organization’s annual meeting, which ran through June 7 in Chicago.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., based in New York, and Roche Holding AG of Basel, Switzerland, announced June 2 their collaboration on two skin cancer therapies, and plan to begin studies on a combination by the end of the year.

Seeking a Partner

In 2010, Paris-based Sanofi concluded that its drugs targeting a molecule called PI3K may work better in combination with a MEK inhibitor, developed by Merck KGaA, of Darmstadt, Germany. In December, the companies agreed to develop the drugs jointly. The first patients were enrolled in studies in May, said Debasish Roychowdhury, Sanofi’s chief oncology officer, in an interview.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG of Basel, Switzerland, started testing a combination of the companies’ drugs in April 2010 in patients with advanced solid tumors.

“I see in the future more and more collaboration between pharmaceutical companies,” said Paolo Paoletti, president of the oncology unit at London-based Glaxo. “At the end of the game it is the right thing to do for patients.”

It still isn’t common for the industry, however.

“Working together is not something we’ve typically had to do,” said Deborah Dunsire, chief executive officer of Tokyo- based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Her company is seeking collaborations with several others that may be announced in the next year, she said. She wouldn’t identify them.

‘Makes Us Nervous’

“Now we have to collaborate on drugs that are new, proprietary and not yet approved, which makes us all nervous,” Dunsire said in an interview. “But we can’t continue throwing out potentially good drugs because they don’t have enough activity as a single agent.”

Merck and AstraZeneca’s trial combines Merck’s drug against a protein called AKT, which promotes cancer progression, with AstraZeneca’s compound against the related MEK molecule. The trial yielded safety data at the cancer meeting.

Merck also has been holding talks with multiple other companies about additional collaborations, Gilliland said.

“Our perspective is if we have a mechanism we think is complementary to what another company has, let’s bring the things together,” he said. “We hope combinations will cure cancer, but at a minimum put cancer in abeyance for a long period of time.”

Biological Revolution

A revolution in biology has triggered an explosion of compounds targeting genes and mutations responsible for cancer’s growth. Since 1998, when Roche’s Herceptin was approved for breast tumors expressing high levels of the HER2 protein, more than two dozen targeted cancer treatments have reached the market.

About 800 targeted cancer medicines aimed at about 300 genes linked to the disease are now in development, John Mendelsohn, president of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said in an interview.

The move to combinations is “an admission,” that single- drug targeted therapy hasn’t been the cancer panacea that doctors once hoped for, said Leonard Saltz, an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, in an interview. Combining drugs is “a fallback position,” when one medicine doesn’t do enough.

Worse Effect

Still, combinations of targeted drugs can make things worse, he said, citing a February, 2009 study in the New England Journal of Medicine that found combining Erbitux from Eli Lilly & Co. and Avastin from Roche, along with powerful chemotherapy drugs, resulted in advanced colon cancer progressing faster.

“None of us saw that coming,” said Saltz.

Combinations of targeted therapies would not only boost the size of the oncology market, already the biggest pharmaceutical category with sales of $56 billion worldwide, they would also raise costs, said Les Funtleyder, an analyst at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York. New cancer therapies are among the most expensive drugs, with treatments such as Bristol-Myers’s Yervoy costing $120,000 for a single course of four doses.

“The elephant in the room is the more drugs you combine the more expensive it gets,” Funtleyder said in an interview. “There could be financial pressure down the road. Patients and payers are looking for value for money. Ultimately, these combinations are going to have to prove their worth.”

Seamus Fernandez, an analyst with Leerink Swann & Co. in Boston, describes the transformation as being only a matter of time.

Sharing Risks

“Companies that recognize they can’t have a monopoly on all of the best drugs and diagnostics will recognize that risk- sharing is in the best interest of patients, the health-care system and, ultimately, the companies that do it right,” he said in an e-mail.

U.S. regulators are preparing for the transformation, meeting with companies and putting a new emphasis on early laboratory work, said Richard Pazdur, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Oncology Drug Products, in an interview. The agency issued proposed guidelines in December clarifying when novel drugs can be tested simultaneously before they are proven effective alone. The agency plans to issue final standards by year’s end.

Cancer has shown itself to be so complicated that two-drug collaborations may not be enough, said Sledge, of the cancer doctors’ group.

Drug companies and research hospitals may need to join together in a giant network to test numerous possible drug combinations. Doctors would then be able to mix drugs from multiple companies based on gene tests indicating which cocktails may work best for each patient, Sledge said.

“I currently don’t see any company that will be able to carry it out by themselves,” he said. “We are talking about an entirely different system than what we have now.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Langreth in New York at rlangreth@bloomberg.net; Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net

www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-15/mer...

voda 16 juni 2011 16:20

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Billionaire-Led Drugmaker’s 50-Cent Vaccine Beats Glaxo’s Version in Study

By Adi Narayan - Jun 16, 2011 6:56 AM GMT+0200

A vaccine developed by Serum Institute of India Ltd., led by billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla, was better at protecting people from a strain of meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa than older products from companies including GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK), researchers said.

About 600 children under two years old were given the vaccines and their immunity levels tested four weeks and 10 months after the inoculation. More than 96 percent of those who received Serum’s MenAfriVac had high levels of antibodies in their blood after four weeks, compared with 64 percent in the group that got Glaxo’s Mencevax Acwy, scientists wrote in a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine today.

The vaccine could prevent about 150,000 deaths by 2020, lead author Marie-Pierre Preziosi said in a telephone interview. Since 1988, more than a million people in Africa have been infected by the disease, which causes mental retardation and permanent deafness and can be fatal within hours if untreated, according to the World Health Organization.

“For more than a century, these African countries have been suffering because of this huge and devastating epidemic,” Preziosi, who heads the unit responsible for clinical development of a meningitis vaccine at the WHO, said from her Geneva office on June 14. “We now have a tool that has the potential to eliminate meningitis epidemics from Africa.”

Poonawalla, who founded Serum in 1966, had $2 billion in assets, making him India’s 31st richest person, Forbes magazine said last year. A Poonawalla company and closely held Serum respectively own 0.5 percent and 10.1 percent of New Delhi-based Panacea Biotec Ltd. (PNCB), the world’s biggest maker of polio vaccines, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Burkina Faso

In 2010, Burkina Faso became the first nation to offer the vaccine, which costs 50 cents a dose and was developed with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to all citizens below 30. There have been four confirmed cases this year, the lowest-ever incidence in the nation’s history, Preziosi said. Last year, there were 66 confirmed cases of meningitis caused by the A strain, which is responsible for almost 85 percent of cases in Africa, she said.

The first study referred to in the paper took place between 2006 and 2007, and data from toddlers in Mali and Gambia was examined. Most participants received a primary shot and a booster dose 10 months later. Blood tests taken before and after inoculations assessed the concentration of antibodies that protect against disease-causing germs.

The second study was of 900 people from 2 to 29 years of age and they received a single dose. Antibody levels were tested four weeks later.

‘Meningitis Belt’

A region in sub-Saharan Africa comprising 25 countries from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east is called the “meningitis belt” because more than 90 percent of all cases occur there, according to the Geneva-based WHO. Nearly 25,000 people died and 10 times as many were infected in the worst-ever epidemic in 1996 and 1997.

Meningococcal disease is an infection of the membrane surrounding the brain and spine. It is transmitted when a passerby inhales germs released when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

Older vaccines including Mencevax and Sanofi’s Menomune belong to a category of inoculants called polysaccharide vaccines, which contain a portion of the outer shell of the disease-causing bacterium. Immunity is developed when the body produces antibodies after being exposed to a small chunk of the pathogen’s external shell, which is made of sugars that are also known as polysaccharides.

Four Strains

Mencevax and Menomune offer protection from all four strains of the bacteria, A, C, Y and W-135, and are consequently more expensive, Prasad Kulkarni, additional medical director at Serum, said in a telephone interview from Pune, western India.

Serum’s product is a so-called conjugate, in which the polysaccharide shell is combined with a protein carrier, a process that confers immunity from the disease for up to 20 years, Kulkarni said. It only protects against the most prevalent A strain.

About 20 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have received the Serum vaccine to date. Another 45 million people from Mali, Niger and three other countries will be inoculated by December, WHO’s Preziosi said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adi Narayan in Mumbai at anarayan8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jason Gale at j.gale@bloomberg.net

Met linkjes naar andere artikelen:

www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-16/bil...

diederique 16 juni 2011 22:44

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site Santarus.....

Santarus Appoints Wendell Wierenga Executive Vice President, Research and Development

.... "I believe Santarus has one of the most interesting combinations of commercial products and high potential pipeline products in the small-cap pharmaceutical space."...........

stormvogel 16 juni 2011 23:16

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www.tradershuddle.com/20110616247989/...

voda 17 juni 2011 16:55

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MDxHealth: eerste kankertesten in VS in 2012
Gepubliceerd op 17 jun 2011 om 16:47 | Views: 0

AMSTERDAM (AFN) - MDxHealth verwacht in het eerste kwartaal van 2012 in de Verenigde Staten de eerste prostaatkankertesten uit te voeren. Dit zei bestuursvoorzitter Jan Groen van het biotechnologiebedrijf vrijdag tegen ANP-Reuters.

MDxHealth is op dit moment bezig met de opbouw van de activiteiten in de VS. Het bedrijf gaat hier genetische kankertesten verkopen. ,,In de VS moet het gaan gebeuren. Daar moet het geld verdiend gaan worden'', zei Groen, die sinds vorig jaar aan het roer staat bij het bedrijf en onder wiens leiding deze koers is ingeslagen.

Er wordt een laboratorium opgezet dat de testen gaat uitvoeren. Dit moet eind dit jaar gereed zijn. Tegelijkertijd wordt verkooppersoneel geworven. Om de investering in de VS te financieren is onlangs nieuw geld opgehaald. Groen zei dat MDxHealth op dit moment ongeveer 15 miljoen euro in kas heeft.

Prostaatkanker

De onderneming richt zich allereerst op prostaatkanker. De test is bedoeld voor mannen van wie in een grootschalige screening is vastgesteld dat ze deze ziekte mogelijk hebben. Het genetisch materiaal uit prostaatweefsel wordt vervolgens getest op bepaalde kenmerken. Op basis hiervan kan worden vastgesteld of een man wel of niet kanker heeft. Zo niet, dan hoeft hij niet na een bepaalde periode terug te komen voor meer onderzoek. Dat is nu nog wel nodig.

De salesfocus zal liggen op Amerikaanse urologen, de behandelende artsen van prostaatkankerpatiënten. Dit zijn er in de VS ongeveer 9300. ,,Je hebt heel veel megapractices met 40 tot 80 urologen in een bedrijf. Die kan je benaderen'', aldus Groen over de marktbenadering.

De Amerikaanse markt voor de test is naar schatting bijna 1 miljard dollar per jaar. De testdienst van MDxHealth zal 1200 tot 1800 dollar gaan kosten. De topman zei dat dergelijke innovatieve testen in het algemeen een winstmarge van ongeveer 70 procent hebben.

voda 22 juni 2011 20:20

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AstraZeneca verkoopt onderdeel
Gepubliceerd op 22 jun 2011 om 09:56 | Views: 123

LONDEN (AFN) - Het Brits-Zweedse farmacieconcern AstraZeneca verkoopt haar onderdeel Astra Tech voor 1,8 miljard dollar (1,25 miljard euro) aan de Amerikaanse fabrikant van tandimplantaten Dentsply. Dat maakte AstraZeneca woensdag bekend.

De overname van Astra Tech, dat zowel tandimplantaten als medische apparatuur maakt, wordt in de tweede helft van 2011 afgerond. Het onderdeel behaalde vorig jaar een omzet van 535 miljoen dollar.

De verkoop levert AstraZeneca extra geld op om aan zijn aandeelhouders uit te keren. Dat is een prioriteit voor bestuursvoorzitter David Brennan. ,,Na een uitgebreide strategische herijking geloven we dat deze transactie een uitstekende uitkomst voor onze aandeelhouders betekent'', aldus de topman.

flosz 24 juni 2011 17:55

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FDA panel backs Shire's hereditary angioedema drug
www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?Stor...
www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommitt...
www.shire.com/shireplc/en/investors/i...

stormvogel 25 juni 2011 10:34

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www.latimes.com/.../la-na-court-drugs...,0,5783097.story

voda 27 juni 2011 17:05

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Mogelijk universeel middel tegen kanker ontdekt

Een onderzoeker bekijkt de deling van tumorcellen. © ANP

Een wondermiddel tegen borstkanker kan een universeel wapen tegen tumoren worden, aldus Britse wetenschappers. De medicatie treft de manier waarop tumorcellen zichzelf herstellen.
Gezonde cellen hebben twee manieren om schade te herstellen, waardoor ze zich kunnen voortplanten, groeien en zich verspreiden, maar de cellen in borsttumoren hebben er maar één door een defect in het gen 'BRCA1'. De medicatie, zogenaamde 'PARP'-inhibitoren, treft de manier waarop tumorcellen zichzelf herstellen. Hierdoor kunnen ze zich niet vermenigvuldigen, waardoor ze uiteindelijk zelfs afsterven.

Geen bijwerkingen
De pillen gaan erfelijke vormen van borstkanker te lijf, maar ook tumoren in de eierstokken, prostaat als in de pancreas die hetzelfde defecte gen als oorzaak hebben. Een voordeel is dat de PARP-inhibitoren zich enkel op de tumor concentreren en deze cellen doden zonder de gezonde cellen te schaden. Dit betekent dat patiënten minder neveneffecten ervaren dan ze bij chemotherapie of bestraling zouden merken, want deze behandelingen treffen wel ook gezonde cellen.

Muizen
Sommige borst-, eierstok- en prostaattumoren hebben hetzelfde foute gen, maar dit vormt slechts een minderheid van de kankers. Dit onderzoek zou leiden tot medicatie die gebruikt wordt bij tumoren die deze genetische fout niet hebben om dit defect na te bootsen. Bij experimenten op muizen met longtumoren bleek dat het blokkeren van een molecule genaamd 'Cdk1' ook het herstel van DNA stopt.

De tumor van de dieren kromp, ook werden enkel de kankercellen getroffen. Deze ontdekking zou algemeen toepasbaar kunnen worden, waardoor een universeel middel tegen kanker realiteit kan worden. Bijwerkingen als misselijkheid en vermoeidheid zouden minimaal zijn.
(Redactie)

27/06/11 14u20

www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1015/Gezondheid-weten...

voda 27 juni 2011 17:10

0

Ouders klagen farmaceut aan om stop medicijn

© THINKSTOCK

In Amsterdam dient woensdag een kort geding dat de ouders van de 15-jarige Brent en de 12-jarige Esra Verhoek uit Veenendaal hebben aangespannen tegen farmaceut Genzyme. De twee jongens hebben de ziekte van Duchenne, een ziekte die de spieren aantast.
Brent en Esra hebben anderhalf jaar lang meegedaan aan een proef met een medicijn. Hun toestand ging zienderogen vooruit. In maart 2010 werd de proef stopgezet en ging hun toestand weer achteruit. De ouders willen dat de farmaceut het middel toch blijft verstrekken.

Bij dit soort onderzoeken is het gebruikelijk dat patiënten die baat hadden bij een geneesmiddel, dat kunnen blijven gebruiken, ook als de studie stopt. Dat is in het geval van Brent en Esra niet gebeurd.

Nieuwe proef
Volgens een woordvoerder van Genzyme, de farmaceut in kwestie, 'is niet objectief aangetoond dat het medicijn een positief resultaat liet zien in de gebruikte dosering.' Genzyme zegt dat de proef is stopgezet omdat de doelstellingen niet behaald waren. Wel gaat medio december een nieuwe proef van start. Op de zaak van Brent en Esra wil de farmaceut niet verder ingaan, omdat die nog loopt.

De jongens hebben van september 2008 tot maart 2010 het medicijn ataluren gebruikt. 'De vooruitgang was spectaculair', aldus Ronald Verhoek, hun vader. 'Van Duchennejongens van deze leeftijd verwacht je dat ze achteruitgaan, maar bij onze zoons was het tegengestelde waar. Ze gingen steeds beter en verder lopen, ze waren minder moe, ze deden het beter op school, hun hart deed het beter en ga zo maar door.'

Achteruitgang
Toen de proef met de medicijnen stopte, ging het al snel slechter met de jongens. Voor de ouders is het zaak om zo snel mogelijk weer met de medicatie te beginnen. 'We zien ze nu elke maand achteruitgaan', aldus Verhoek.

Bij mensen met de ziekte van Duchenne worden de spieren steeds slapper. Tussen hun tiende en vijftiende levensjaar komen de meeste patiënten in een rolstoel terecht. In de late puberteit moeten ze aan de beademing. De helft van de patiënten overlijdt voordat ze 30 worden. (ANP/Redactie)

27/06/11 14u57

www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1012/Binnenland/artic...

henrico26 27 juni 2011 17:16

0

Het is veel te rustig rondom dit aandeel. De koers begint nu echter verder weg te zakken, baart mij wel wat zorgen. Ik had toch wel rekening gehouden met een geleidelijk herstel richting de 0.20 cent. Ook is er weinig nieuws van de kant van Pharming, hebben ze iets te verbergen?

[verwijderd] 3 juli 2011 07:41

1

www.dovepress.com/conestat-alfa-for-t...

[verwijderd] 3 juli 2011 14:31

0

clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00225147?d...

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