Shares in Dublin-based Shire plc rose 12 percent Friday morning as the company went public on its rejection of a £27 billion (US$46 billion) cash-and-shares takeover bid from Abbvie Inc. Read More
Taking advantage of the immuno-oncology updraft, Kite Pharma Inc. priced an initial public offering (IPO) of 7.5 million shares at $17 each, for gross proceeds of $127.5 million that will help advance its anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Read More
SAN DIEGO – As an anticipated cast of 15,000 dealmakers, regulators, scientists and others converge here for the BIO International Convention, dealmaking is likely to hit a fevered pitch while digital health, a new topic this year, takes root. Read More
LONDON – The EMA has launched a consultation on factoring patient-related outcomes into the regulatory process for oncology drugs, as a next step in its efforts to turn patient sentiment into hard data and speed up its approval processes. Read More
TIANJIN, China – Although the future of stem cell technology is bright, the sector in China has suffered due to a lack of clear regulations, with the then-Ministry of Health suspending clinical research and application of stem cell technology in 2011. Read More
In findings that report counterintuitive results about both the anticoagulant heparin and the receptor tyrosine kinase ERK, scientists at Duke University have shown that by treating animals with a heparin derivative, they were able to increase the differentiation of immature cells in an animal model of neuroblastoma. Read More
SHANGHAI – Chia-Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. (CTTQ), of Jiangsu, has taken steps to bring a biosimilar version of Pfizer Inc.'s Xyntha, a recombinant human coagulation factor VIII (rhFVIII), to the clinic and moves a step closer to providing a much-needed, affordable treatment for China's hemophilia A sufferers. Read More
Celsion Corp., of Lawrenceville, N.J., completed its acquisition of Huntsville, Ala.-based Egen Inc.'s nucleic acid-based therapeutic assets. Read More
Enteris Biopharma Inc., of Boonton, N.J., said its development partner, Cara Therapeutics Inc., of Shelton, Conn., dosed the first subjects in a further phase Ia/Ib trial of a tablet formulation of its peripherally selective kappa opioid agonist, CR845, for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. Read More
Wuxi Pharmatech Inc., of Shanghai, said its toxicology facility in Suzhou, China, recently passed a surveillance good laboratory practice inspection by the FDA with no major observations. Read More
Astrazeneca plc, of London, said The New England Journal of Medicine published results of two pivotal phase III studies, KODIAC-4 and KODIAC-5, of naloxegol, an investigational treatment for opioid-induced constipation. Read More