Proceeds will be used to fund ongoing and new clinical trials and development and commercialization efforts for pimavanserin, as well as activities for other product candidates and for general corporate purposes...Kite Pharma Inc., of Los Angeles, said it closed a $20 million private placement of shares of its Series A preferred stock...Receptos will use the proceeds to support clinical work in multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease and allergic/immune-mediate disorders. (See BioWorld Today

clinical development plan and financial terms relating to ISIS-TTRRx to reflect an accelerated development plan for that antisense drug...Isis has 28 candidates in preclinical and clinical development across a wide variety of indications, with nine scheduled to report data in the next 12 months

Critics of the firm, too, have pointed to the lack of a big pharma partner to expand Qsymia's reach. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 23, 2012.) Lief said Belviq already has picked up some momentum...We always modeled the EU opportunity as upside to our estimates," Leerink Swann analyst Marko Kozul, wrote in a research report, adding that his firm's valuation "is based solely on U.S.-derived revenues." (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 22, 2012.) Because of the commercialization delay in the U.S., Arena's first

Coronado plans to use the proceeds to fund R&D, clinical trials and manufacture of supply as well as other corporate purposes...BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Leerink Swann acted as joint book-running managers for the offering, with Stifel and Piper Jaffray serving as co-managers

Credit Suisse, Leerink Swann, Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences and BMO Capital Markets are serving as underwriters for the proposed IPO...MEI Pharma Inc., of San Diego, priced a public offering of about 2 million shares of common stock at $7.50 apiece, a 9.5 percent discount to Thursday's closing price

Another $406 million could come in the form of clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, and Enanta would be eligible for tiered, double-digit royalties and a U.S...and London-based GW Pharma plc, which is seeking a Nasdaq listing and a capital raise. (See BioWorld Today, March 11, 2013, March 12, 2013, and March 20, 2013.) In other financings news...Net proceeds are expected to support clinical trial costs and acquisition of manufacturing equipment, leasehold improvements and general corporate

The company plans to use proceeds from the offering to complete clinical development of Ravicti in hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and to fund post-approval studies in UCD...Hyperion gained rights to Ravicti from Ucyclyd Pharma Inc., a subsidiary of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp...at the same unit price.

Citigroup and Leerink Swann LLC acted as joint book-running managers, and JMP Securities LLC, Piper Jaffray & Co...Dezima Pharma BV, of Naarden, the Netherlands, said it raised €14.2 million (US$18.6 million) for the clinical development of its cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitor, DEZ-001 (previously TA-8995), and to develop additional earlier-stage dyslipidemia assets

that included a $30 million equity investment and a $50 million synthetic royalty agreement linked to future sales of Meningitec, a vaccine Nuron acquired earlier this month from Pfizer Inc., and its HibTiter vaccine (Haemophilus b conjugate vaccine [diphtheria CRM197 protein conjugate]), in-licensed from Wyeth LLC and subsequently out-licensed in January to Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp., of Osaka, Japan. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 13, 2012.) In a second biotech deal on the same day, HC Royalty

We were losing a lot of patients to these clinical trials...I'm not satisfied with this performance and not looking at clinical trials as an excuse," Johnson said...The FDA granted Xtandi (enzalutamide, Astellas Pharma Inc. and Medivation Inc.) approval in September for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients who have previously received docetaxel. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 4, 2012.) Dendreon said it is looking for a European marketing partner, rather than just a manufacturing

About a year earlier, Dutch firm AM-Pharma BV banked €29.2 million (then US$39.8 million) in a Series D round, apparently the largest venture capital financing in Dutch biotechnology thus far...The company planned to switch from a bovine to a recombinant form of its AKI treatment, alkaline phosphatase. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 14, 2011.) Bunnik, the Netherlands-based AM-Pharma had then gained only preliminary data from two small-scale clinical trials suggesting that bovine alkaline phosphatase

The FDA did not cite clinical safety or efficacy issues and did not request additional pre-approval studies, but the agency did raise questions relating to chemistry, manufacturing and controls, as well as issues related to a facility inspection at a third-party manufacturer. (See BioWorld Today, March 28, 2012.) The company completed an end-of-review meeting with the FDA in June to seek clarity from the agency in developing its response...Horizon Pharma Inc., of Deerfield, Ill., filed an S3 shelf

Dublin, Ireland-based pharma firm Shire plc also joined the round as a strategic investor...Proceeds from the financing also will support manufacturing, clinical and commercial infrastructure...Proceeds will support clinical trials of Nexagon, CoDa's lead candidate based on gap junction modulation for treating chronic wounds, including venous leg ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers

Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint book-running managers in the offering, with Cowen and Co., Leerink Swann, Canaccord Genuity Inc...The company is partnered with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp., of Osaka, Japan, and recently expanded the collaboration to develop a second protein therapeutic for an undisclosed orphan disease using Synageva's development capabilities and protein expression platform...The company plans to use the proceeds to complete clinical development of lead candidate

The company plans to use the proceeds to fund clinical trials, R&D activities and other corporate programs...Gemmus Pharma Inc., of San Francisco, closed a Series A round to advance its host-targeted treatment for influenza...The company plans to use the proceeds to cover the costs of clinical trials for its product pipeline, including CompleoTRT A bioadhesive intranasal testosterone gel, which is in a Phase III study in hypogonadism, to acquire manufacturing equipment and for other corporate purposes

Three smashing clinical successes by Gilead Sciences Inc.'s nuc drug GS-7977 for hepatitis C virus (HCV) have lit up the 2012 International Liver Congress of the European Association for the Study of the Liver, sending the company's stock up 12 percent Thursday...Leerink Swann's Joshua Schimmer wrote, "While we understand the strategic rationale, the price tag is lofty for a pre-commercial asset and not aligned with what we would like to see from GILD in terms of capital allocation." (See BioWorld

The company was co-founded by former executives of MGI Pharma Inc., a Minneapolis-based firm that marketed several cancer drugs, including Dacogen (decitabine) for myelodysplastic syndromes, and was purchased in 2008 by Eisai Co...Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Leerink Swann are joint bookrunners on the deal

Net proceeds of $54.1 million – that figure could increase by about $8 million if underwriters Leerink Swann LLC and Cowen and Co...LLC exercise their full overallotment option – are expected to support ongoing clinical development, particularly work on Amigal (migalastat HCl), which is in Phase III testing as a monotherapy for Fabry disease and in Phase II trials in combination with enzyme replacement therapy (ERT...But starting this year, the big pharma firm is shouldering three-fourths of the

Inc., Leerink Swann LLC and Stifel Nicolaus Weisel a 3 million-share overallotment option that could raise another $7.8 million...The London big pharma firm said earlier this month that it "has a Phase III decision to make, so data from two Phase II trials in second-line lung cancer and melanoma are critical," noted analysts from Edison Investment Research, who called 2012 a "pivotal year that could boost Array's relatively modest valuation