Drug Companies Update August 2008
Mergers, acquisitions & Joint Ventures
- Stiefel Laboratories has acquired Barrier Therapeutics, which will remain as a subsidiary.
- Bentley spun-out all of its drug delivery products to Cpex.
- Intercell has acquired Iomai.
- Raven Biotechnologies has been acquired by MacroGenics.
New Companies
- Abeome is a biotech outfit investigating high-affinity monoclonal antibodies.
- Adienne is an integrated biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the treatment of rare and severe diseases.
- Altair Therapeutics was formed to develop Isis Pharmaceuticals' antisense drugs for respiratory disease.
- Amplimmune is developing immune-based biologics to treat patients in the areas of cancer, autoimmunity, transplantation and infectious diseases.
- Aprea is developing anticancer apoptosis inducers that work via p53-dependent pathways.
- Asklepion Pharmaceuticals is focusing on hepatic diseases.
- Auckland UniServices is the research and knowledge transfer company for the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
- Biocerosis a biotech company working in the fields of allergy, autoimmunity, inflammation and cancer.
- BioSceptre is developing anticancer antibodies.
- Cancer Innovations is focused on the development of therapeutics targeting cryptic elements within malignant tumours.
- CellNexus is developing therapies for the treatment of cancer-related anaemia.
- CompleGen is working on the treatment of various indications.
- Connexios Life Sciences is an Indian company focused on chronic disease management.
- Cornerstone Pharmaceuticals is developing anticancers based on exploiting metabolic pathways common to cancer cells.
- Cortria is focused on therapeutics for cardiovascular disease.
- Coserix was spun-out of Serenex and is developing treatments for unmet medical needs.
- Danish company Drugrecure reprofiles marketed drugs for new indications.
- Endoceutics specialises in late-stage Phase III trial and commercialisation of products.
- Ensemble Discovery is developing macrocyclic therapeutics and bioassays using its proprietary DNA-Programmed Chemistry platform.
- Expergen is an Austrian company with an anticancer under development.
- Galantos is developing galatamine-based drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
- GlycoForm was spun-out of Oxford University to develop novel synthetic glyoproteins.
- Hansa Medical is commercialising projects from Malmo University, Sweden, including proteins and peptides for sepsis and autoimmune diseases.
- Icon Bioscience is developing novel ophthalmic pharmaceuticals using its Verisome drug delivery platform.
- Immun System is developing IgY antibodies for use in a number of disease areas.
- Inbiopro is performing research on purification methods for recombinant proteins, high-expression stable cell lines and protein modification techniques.
- InCode BioPharmaceutics is developing drugs for the complement-related pathologies in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
- Innate Pharmaceuticals is developing novel antibiotics.
- InvivoGen Therapeutics is developing gene therapy and immunotherapeutics using in-house plasmid vectors.
- MagForce Nanotechnologies is developing nanomolecular cancer therapies.
- Miragen is developing microRNA-targeting drugs for cardiovascular disease and related muscle disorders.
- NatureWise is developing medicines based on traditional Chinese medicine.
- NeuroNascent is developing therapies based on neurogenesis for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, depression and stroke.
- Pharmena is based in Poland and is initially focusing on cardioprotectives.
- RemeGenix is a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.
- Reviva Pharmaceuticals has a portfolio of drugs discovered through an integrated chemical genomics platform.
- Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals is using natural nucleotides as templates for small molecules for use in diverse therapeutic areas.
- TauRx Therapeutics is a Singapore-based company focused on neurodegenerative disease.
- Telormedix is developing immunoselective drugs.
- ValiRx is developing technologies and products for the analysis and treatment of cancer.
