Merck Archives

News and Trends 25 Jul 2016

Merck and Sigma-Aldrich: Together to solve the toughest problems in life science

In late 2015, the life science business of Merck joined forces with Sigma-Aldrich, bringing together two major life science players and completing the largest acquisition in the history of Merck KGaA, a leading science and technology company based in Darmstadt, Germany. We met with Klaus-Reinhard Bischoff, Head of Global Research & Applied Solutions Commercial Area […]

July 25, 2016 - 3 minutesmins - By Joachim Eeckhout

News and Trends 30 Jun 2016

11 Hot Companies to Meet this Year at BioSpain

Spain has a lot of great stuff – paella, tapas, siesta! But how is Spanish biotech doing? With BioSpain 2016 approaching, we took a look at some of the most important biotechs operating in Spain and attending the event. Bonus: here is a promotional code to have a discount of 10% on your ticket BIO2016 As one […]

June 30, 2016 - 5 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro

migraine biotech cgrps heptares review neurology

News and Trends 17 Mar 2016

A Relief for Migraines at last? The Biotech race for the Ultimate Cure

A Migraine is more than just a headache; it is a neurological disorder affecting a staggering 10% of the worldwide population. So where are we on fighting a viable therapy – and who is working on Migraines? People of all ages are at risk of migraine, with women being three times more likely to suffer from […]

March 17, 2016 - 4 minutesmins - By Ekaterina Perets

horizon centarui axxinity venture therapeutics alphamers cancer1

News and Trends 4 Mar 2016

The Best Selling Biologic of All Time now chased by New Phase III Biosimilar

Merck (Germany) has initiated a phase III trial for a biosimilar of AbbVie’s Humira, to treat Chronic plaque psoriasis. This is a big deal as Humira is the best selling biologics of all time (over €10Bn in annual revenues). Merck is developing a candidate (MSB11022) as a biosimilar of adalimumab, a human monoclonal antibody sold under the brand Humira – a key […]

March 4, 2016 - 2 minutesmins - By Denise Neves Gameiro

News and Trends 11 Feb 2016

Sanofi-Genzyme: Still successful 5 years after the acquisition?

Back in 2011, France’s biggest Pharmaceutical company Sanofi decided to purchase Genzyme Corp. for more than $20 billion, thus becoming the latest global drug giant to acquire a big biotech to foster its R&D pipeline. 5 years later, what’s the situation for Genzyme and Sanofi? So often when a large Pharma acquires a smaller Biotech, […]

February 11, 2016 - 3 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

merck msd keytruda immunoncology lymphoma hodgkins affimed

News and Trends 26 Jan 2016

Keytruda Combo! MSD Recruits German Biotech on Lymphoma PD-1 Trial

Affimed in Heidelberg (Germany) will fund and conduct a clinical trial to investigate the combination of Merck’s (MSD) anti-PD-1 therapy (Keytruda), with Affimed’s proprietary drug for the treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. The phase Ib trial will focus on patients whose disease has relapsed or is refractory to chemotherapy, including treatment with the marketed antibody-drug-conjugate […]

January 26, 2016 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

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News and Trends 17 Dec 2015

The Assault on Solid Tumors: How ‘Blinding’ Cancer is an Attractive Therapeutic Approach

The Dutch Oncology VC Specialist Aglaia has invested €3.4M in the Swiss Start-Up Inthera Bioscience for their Small molecule platform against solid tumors. Aglaia is a venture capital firm based in Bilthoven (NL) which has 3 funds under their management for specialist investment into Oncology research. Last year they raised over €50M as part of […]

December 17, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

blood cells transport drugs rubius therapeutics flagship erytech pku

News and Trends 14 Dec 2015

Red Blood Cells to Carry Drugs? A US Start-Up Inspired by French Biotech to Focus on Rare Metabolic Disease

Erytech (France) is working on a drug-transportation system using red blood cells. Now US Rubius Therapeutics joins Erytech on this new approach to drug delivery, backed by the huge VC in the States; Flagship Ventures. Flagship Ventures has yet again shown its comprehensive portfolio in biotech through another EU inspired Biotech start-up. Rubius Therapeutics in […]

December 14, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 8 Dec 2015

Merck Pulls out of Plans to Commercialize Cancer Drug After it Fails in Two Phase III Trials

Threshold Pharmaceuticals in the US has failed at getting its hypoxia prodrug evofosfamide through phase III trials for two types of cancer, and as a result has lost Merck’s partnership on the program. Evofosfamide (TH-302) is an investigational hypoxia-activated prodrug discovered by Threshold Pharmaceuticals in Pennsylvania (US). The prodrug is activated only at very low […]

December 8, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 2 Nov 2015

How Big can be Small in Biotech – #BIO-Europe 2015 Keynote

As usual at BIO-Europe, the fair starts with an opening keynote, this time with speakers from Merck Healthcare, MedImmune/AstraZeneca and Baxalta. The keynote is basically a discussion between high-level speakers, akin to the talk which took place in Paris during March, when Antoine Papiernik (the prominent European VC from Sofinnova) led a panel discussion with […]

November 2, 2015 - 5 minutesmins - By Philip Hemme

News and Trends 15 Oct 2015

Ablynx richly rewarded for MSD’s Nanobody Proof in Immuno-Oncology

Ablynx – the Belgian nanobody biotech (which uses monoclonal antibodies of Alpacas), has now achieved it’s first pre-clinical milestone in its immuno-oncology partnership with MSD (Merck & Co). Now Ablynx has achieved proof of concept for one of the 17 Nanobodies being studied. Ablynx has therefore received the first €3.5M in milestone payments from MSD […]

October 15, 2015 - 2 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

News and Trends 8 Oct 2015

Rabbit Antibodies proven to be more specific than Mice in Immuno-oncology PD-L1 Research

Abcam is a Cambridge (UK) Biotech who have developed a monoclonal antibody (mAB) production platform from rabbits. This platform is developed for a much more specific immunohistochemical alternative to the traditional Rodent equivalents. Now the most recent generation of mAbs from this platoform is able to detect PD-L1 tumor proteins for immuno-oncology research. The conventional […]

October 8, 2015 - 3 minutesmins - By Dani Bancroft

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