Vas Narasimhan, the newly appointed CEO of Swiss pharma giant Novartis, introduced himself to the Swiss biotech industry with a stimulant talk at the Swiss Biotech Day. Apart from that participants of the annual gathering were in high spirits as the Swiss biotech sector continues to grow steadily.
The tremendous success of last years BIO Europe Spring in Barcelona was hard to beat. But the follow-up this year in Amsterdam organised by EBD Group together with Health Holland crystallised as a worthy successor.
French green chemistry specialist Global Bioenergies announced the delivery of a first batch of sustainable cosmetic ingredients to cosmetics heavyweight L’Oréal. It was produced as part of the ISOPROD project, supported by the French State’s Investissements for the Future Program.
More than 4,000 participants from all over the globe visited Berlin in early November to take part in this years BIO-Europe. The event continues to be on the upswing like the biotech industry itself.
US biotech company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals revealed plans to create some 300 new jobs in Ireland’s Limerick County. The jobs form part of a US$100m (85m) expansion plan for the company’s campus there.
Portuguese biotech company Immunethep has convinced the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to hand out a grant to test its antibody against the bacterial extracellular virulence factor GAPDH.
Dutch Uniqure BV launched a public offering of five million shares of common stock. Underwriters over-allotment will be an additional 750,000 shares.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and Polish drug developer Selvita SA have entered a partnership to co-fund further preclinical and clinical development of a targeted therapy to treat patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
Gene therapy specialist Uniqure NV announced new executive appointments to its leadership team and nominations to its Board of Directors. Scott McMillan, for instance, will be responsible for all current Good Manufacturing Process (cGMP) activities and all product development functions.
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.