Collaboration - May 27, 2015
Amgen, AZ End Psoriasis Drug Deal
Amgen is dissolving an agreement with AstraZeneca to develop the psoriasis drug brodalumab after a patient involved in a late-stage trial developed suicidal thoughts and behavior, according to BioSpace.com. Because of that incident, if the drug were eventually approved by regulators, they would likely require restrictive labeling, which discouraged Amgen. The latest news came as […]
Companies - May 20, 2015
FDA Investigating Type 2 Diabetes Drugs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating diabetes drugs used to treat Type 2 diabetes made by Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca PLC and Eli Lilly and Company after 20 cases of ketoacidosis that required hospitalization were reported, according to BioSpace.com. Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors used to treat type 2 diabetes may lead to […]
Companies - May 19, 2015
AstraZeneca to Build New Swedish Facility
AstraZeneca plans to spend $285 million to build a new drug manufacturing facility in Sodertalje, Sweden, so it can produce more drugs to be used in clinical trials, according to a BioSpace.com article. The plant is expected to bring 150 to 250 “highly skilled” new jobs to the area by 2019. The new facility is being designed […]
Acquisition - May 10, 2015
AZ to Build Plant In Algeria
AstraZeneca is part of a joint venture to build a $125 million plant in North Africa. The company established AstraZeneca al-Djazair, with two companies in Algeria, Salhi and Hasnaoui, to construct the facility. Algerian law requires that local companies have the majority ownership, so AstraZeneca will have a 49 percent interest, invest the $125 million to […]
Collaboration - May 8, 2015
Ardelyx, AZ to Review Agreement
Shares of Ardelyx dropped in after-market trading earlier this week after the AstraZeneca partner acknowledged that its lead drug tenapanor was unimpressive in a Phase IIa study. Ardelyx, based in California, says that tenapanor missed the primary endpoint among 154 patients with Stage 3 chronic kidney disease (CKD) and Type 2 diabetes, and was unable […]
Acquisition - May 6, 2015
AZ Partnering with Flagship
Venture capital and creation firm Flagship Ventures has formed three new strategic partnerships withAstraZeneca, Nestlé Health Science and Bayer CropScience. Flagship, which manages $1.4 billion in capital, is perhaps best known for the eight successful IPOs it has backed in the past two years, as well as the formation of 27 companies to date, according […]
