Industry Briefs: March 4, 2013

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A roundup of additional company and people news from pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, their suppliers, and contract-service providers.

Company News

BioLamina and Roche have formed an R&D agreement to jointly develop new cell culture systems for various applications, including stem cell research. The collaboration will focus on assessing laminin-based in vitro cell culture matrices offering highly physiological microenvironments for living cells. Under the terms of the agreement Roche will provide R&D funding and scientific expertise to BioLamina. Financial details were not disclosed. Read More

DBV Technologies, a new standard in the treatment of allergies, announced today that it entered into a strategic manufacturing agreement with Sanofi to produce Viaskin’s API, such as peanut protein extract. Per the agreement, Sanofi will act as DBV’s CMO. In this context, Sanofi will scale-up and validate the production process of Viaskin’s API and full supply at commercial scale. Read More

FDA expanded the approved use of Stivarga (regorafenib) to treat patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) that cannot be surgically removed and no longer respond to other FDA-approved treatments for this disease. Read More

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Phenomenex has launched a redesigned website, featuring industry-specific gateways function as complete digital consultants, helping users find answers by providing customized content and newsletters along with product selection and method development tools. Read More

Franz B. Humer, chairman of the board of directors of the Roche Group, announced at the company’s Mar. 5, 2013, annual general meeting that he will not stand for re-election to the Board in 2014. The company will nominate a successor for the chairmanship in autumn 2013. The Roche board has decided that Humer’s successor will also serve as nonexecutive chairman, thus maintaining the established separation of the offices of chairman and CEO. Read More