Hansa’s immunomodulatory enzyme does the job

Sweden’s Hansa Medical AB presented data showing its experimental drug allowed doctors to perform successful kidney transplants in patients with a particularly high risk of organ rejection.

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J&J intensifies vaccine endeavour with Bavarian Nordic

Johnson & Johnson has entered a new deal with Danish biotech Bavarian Nordic worth up to US$879m to develop vaccine regimens against hepatitis B and HIV.

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GSK cancels 30 preclinical and clinical programmes

UK’s biggest pharma firm announced it will save an additional £1bn each year by 2020. 80% of the pharmaceutical R&D pipeline expenses will be directed towards two current (Respiratory and HIV/infectious diseases) and two potential (Oncology and Immuno-inflammation) priority areas.

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Ablynx adds Sanofi to its list of pharma partners

Belgian nanobody-developer Ablynx NV now also works together with French pharma company Sanofi. The deal is potentially worth €2.4bn but comes with an upfront payment of just €23m. The partners will initially focus on therapeutics for the treatment of various immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.

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Seventure debuts in Japan with microbiome investment

Venture capitalist Seventure Partners announced that it has participated in a US$13m financing of Japanese biotech company Anaeropharma Science. The investment is made from Seventure’s Health for Life Capital investment vehicle.

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