Drug Companies Update Jan 2007
Mergers, acquisitions & Joint Ventures
- Crucell has acquired Stockholm-based SBL Vaccin AB
- Elbion has merged with 4AZA Bioscience. The resultant company is known as Elbion, but is headquartered at 4AZA's site in Belgium.
- Pfizer have acquired PowderMed, which will remain as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
- Myogen has become a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences.
New Companies
- Acucela is discovering new drug therapies for ocular diseases such as macular degeneration, Stargadt's disease, retinitis pigmentosa and glaucoma.
- Advinus is developing pharmaceutical and agrochemical products.
- Aegerion is developing therapeutic drugs to treat cardiovascular and metabolic disease.
- AkaRx is a spin-off from the Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical and Fujisawa Healthcare merger and it is developing novel therapeutics for unmet clinical needs.
- Alvine Pharmaceuticals develops products for the treatment of coeliac disease.
- BioProgress is using its proprietary polymer technology to develop and enhance its own pharmaceutical products and those of its partners.
- Cadence Pharmaceuticals is committed to developing drugs specifically for use in the hospital setting.
- CellCure is developing anticancers by applying T-cell based specific immune therapy.
- Critical Outcome Technologies is developing preclinical and early-stage drug candidates using its proprietary computer profiling technologies.
- Curalogic is developing oral treatments for allergy. CureMark is a speciality biotechnology company developing treatments for neurological and other disease by addressing certain gastrointestinal/ pancreatic secretory deficiencies.
- Dimera is aiming to reduce the risk of heart disease and cardiovascular dysfunction by targeting causes rather than symptoms via genomic regulation.
- Situated in sunny France, DNA Therapeutics is using its DNA bait technology to develop short inhibiting DNA molecules for treatment-resistant cancers.
- Giaconda is developing in-house and in-licensed therapies for serious gastrointestinal diseases. Its pipeline consists primarily of patented combinations of registered drugs.
- GP Pharm is developing new products containing hormones and cytotoxic compounds.
- ImmunoCellular Therapeutics is developing cellular therapies for the treatment of brain and other cancers, as well as neurodegenerative disorders.
- Kinexis develops promising early-stage inventions from academic institutions with interests in CNS, metabolic and ophthalmological diseases.
- Meabco Biotech is developing novel therapeutics based on metal ions, for the treatment of cancer.
- Mistral Pharma is focused on the formulation of controlled-release oral pharmaceuticals.
- Neuralstem is developing human neural stem cell technology to treat CNS diseases.
- Neurosciences Victoria is a drug delivery and development company with a particular interest in neurological disorders.
- Austrian company Pelias develops novel vaccine and antibody-based therapies for the prevention and treatment of nosocomial infections.
- Royston-based PanGenetics is a therapeutic antibody company.
- Danish company ReceptIcon identifies novel receptors in the kidney responsible for renal uptake and nephrotoxicity of frequently-used drugs.
- Roxro Pharma in-licenses drug candidates for rapid development in acute medical conditions.
- R&R is a Japanese outfit performing translational research based on intellectual property or drugs that it has acquired, and is subsequently licensing these out with greatly increased value.
- SemBioSys Genetics is using its proprietary oilbodyoleosin technology for the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. It uses plant-based genetic engineering to produce recombinant proteins.
- Solace Pharmaceuticals is seeking to translate new discoveries in pain biology into effective therapeutics. Solstice Neurosciences is developing specialty biopharmaceuticals.
- Syntopix Group was spun-out from the University of Leeds, the UK, and is developing novel combinatorial formulations for the topical treatment and prevention of dermatological conditions.
- Chinese outfitTargetDrug is investigating smallmolecule drugs targeting GPCRs.
- Unibioscreen is focused on developing cytotoxic and antimigratory anticancers, mainly derived from natural products.
- VaxInnate is developing novel vaccines for both pandemic and seasonal influenza, based on its toll-like receptor technology platform.
- Victory Pharma is focused on the development and acquisition of analgesic drugs.
- Yuyu is an international public pharmaceutical company working in several therapeutic areas.
