(Reuters) – Belgian biotech group Ablynx on Wednesday said it had tripled its research deal with U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co leading to potential milestone payments of about 4 billion euros ($4.38 billion).
Large pharmaceutical groups such as Merck & Co often team up with smaller companies like Ablynx to develop new treatments. A so-called milestone payment is due whenever a programme passes a certain trial phase or clinical tests are successful.
Ablynx, which produces so-called nanobody medicines derived from llama antibodies, said it had expanded its research agreement with Merck & Co by 12 programmes for which it could receive up to 340 million euros each if successful.
The group added it would get a 13 million euro upfront payment for signing the deal expansion. The initial agreement with the U.S. group, signed in February 2014, contained payments of up to 1.7 billion euros. ($1 = 0.9142 euros) (Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Anand Basu)
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to MedTrace for their method of diagnosing the human heart via 15O-water PET. The patented method is the foundation of the company’s software aQuant, currently under development. Hendrik “Hans” Harms, PhD and Senior Scientist at MedTrace, and Jens Soerensen, Professor and Clinical Advisor to MedTrace, are the originators of the method.
Teresa Graham, currently head of global product strategy for Roche pharma, will become the division’s new CEO next month, Roche said Thursday. Simultaneously, Roche is elevating Levi Garraway, chief medical officer, to the executive committee.
Fierce Pharma has obtained internal documents and video of a town hall meeting conducted this week describing what J&J called a “comprehensive review” of its portfolio. Moving forward, J&J plans to operate its vaccines and infectious diseases outfits as one group, the executives explained.
