Sector News

Categories

Borderless Insights

Image
Negotiating Terms with a New Employer
Image
Beyond Flowers and Platitudes: Reclaiming the Essence of International Women’s Day
Image
Visionary or ‘Stuck-in-the-Mud’? Where are you on Workplace Flexibility?

Biogen snaps up UK’s Convergence for $675 million

January 12, 2015
Life sciences
Biogen Idec has snapped up UK-based Convergence Pharmaceteuticals in a deal worth up to $675 million, buying into the latter’s expertise in chronic pain research to boost growth of its own pain fortfolio.
 
The US biotech said last night it has agreed with Convergence an upfront fee of $200 million and potentially up to $400 million in milestone payments to acquire its business.
 
Convergence has a solid batch of ion channel-modulating experimental products for neuropathic pain in its pipeline, led by Phase II candidate CNV1014802, which has demonstrated proof-of-concept for trigeminal neuralgia, as well as for treating pain from lumbosacral radiculopathy, otherwise known as sciatica.
 
The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of this year.
 
Columbia University genetic pact
 
The news came just two days after Biogen and Columbia University Medical Center announced they have linked arms in a $30 million pact to carry out genetics discovery research on the underlying causes of disease, in the hope identifying new treatment approaches. 
 
Further financial details were not revealed, but the groups did say that under the agreement a sequencing and analysis facility and shared postdoctoral program will be established at Columbia to support collaborative genetics studies.  
 
The move will enable the parties to investigate patient genomes showing unusual treatment responses or unique disease presentations, and explore the connections among genes, pathways, and disease processes. The aim is to harvest multiple qualified targets for new therapeutic approaches.
 
“This collaboration marries the exceptional drug development expertise of Biogen with cutting-edge genomics expertise at Columbia University Medical Center,” said David Goldstein, founding director of the university’s Institute for Genomic Medicine. “It will not only focus on target identification and validation at the early stages of drug development, but also facilitate genetically informed evaluation of treatments,” he noted.
 
By Selina McKee
 
Source: Pharma Times

comments closed

Related News

April 20, 2024

CureVac and MD Anderson Cancer Center partner to develop new cancer vaccines

Life sciences

CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.

Read more
April 20, 2024

FUJIFILM plans $1.2 billion investment in major US manufacturing facility

Life sciences

FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.

Read more
April 20, 2024

Sanofi cuts staff in Belgium as early-stage research dwindles

Life sciences

Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.

Read more
More news

How can we help you?

We're easy to reach