pharmaceutical

Cancer Research UK has appointed Tony Hickson to the position of Chief Business Officer. He arrives to the business from his position as Managing Director of Technology Transfer at Imperial Innovations, the technology transfer office of Imperial College London (ICL).

Hickson will begin his role in August, with his role dedicated to driving forward the commercial interests of the charity.

Johnson & Johnson continues to look at options to slim down its business, after having received an offer from Fortive to sell its medical-sterilisation unit for $2.8 billion.

The deal consists of $2.7 billion in cash and $0.1 billion of retained net receivables.

For J&J, it is trying to divest units that have slower growth compared to the rest of the business. After its $30 billion deal for Actelion, it is clearly trying to focus on the higher growth area of pharmaceuticals into the long-term.

Pfizer’s move to dump its neuroscience divisions caused serious ripples through the industry, with many wondering whether it heralded an end of big pharma’s interest in the notoriously difficult to target disease area, which includes the elusive targets of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Forty Seven, a spinout from Stanford University, has had a busy few days – first announcing that it had filed for an IPO and then by releasing data from two proof-of-concept studies.

The biotech is looking to generate $115 million from the IPO to progress its lead candidate, 5F9.

In the two studies, the monoclonal antibody, designed to target the CD47 receptor, was tested in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma (FL). The treatment is initially being tested alongside rituximab.

Axovant’s spectacular crash to Earth, after a soaring IPO that saw its share price hit the heady heights of $26, is likely to become a biotech cautionary tale into the future but the next twist in the tale was revealed to be it securing a new lead candidate, this time in Parkinson’s disease.

Its previous lead candidate, which made the company’s name and that of its founder, Vivek Ramaswamy, was a drug for Alzheimer’s that the biotech had picked up from GSK’s offcuts.

It failed, spectacularly, and the biotech’s share price tanked to be worth under $2.

The FlyPharma Conference Europe wrapped up for another year on 6 June, returning with an expanded roster of speakers who provided insight into all aspects of the pharmaceutical supply chain.

The event was once again hosted at the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel and the Host Partner, Brussels Airport, as always provided speakers and insight into its own experiences working directly with a number of supply chain stakeholders.

Amgen and Novartis have announced that their newly FDA-approved treatment for migraines has received a recommendation from the CHMP, generally a precursor to an approval by the EMA.

The first-in-class treatment for migraines is part of a new wave of CGRP inhibitors, with Amgen and Novartis treatment expected to reach blockbuster status.

Up until present, no studies had shown that immunotherapies could offer potential treatment for men with prostate cancer; however, at ASCO, a team from The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust were able to use MSD’s Keytruda to good effect in 38% of men.

There were 258 men on the study for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer and 38% of those were still alive after a year, with a further 11% of those still receiving treatment and had not seen their cancer grow.