CHICAGO – At the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting last week, there were plenty of individual trial results vying for attention. But there were also presentations that focused on the science of the trials: how one might make those trials better at observing the true effects of drugs on tumors and, ultimately, on patients. In randomized controlled trials RECIST – the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors – is the gold standard of these studies. First published in

Company Amount Raised Ophthotech Corp. $175M Intrexon Corp. $150M Symphogen A/S $54.1M Auris Medical AG $50.8M Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. $48.2M Jounce Therapeutics Inc. $47M Effector Therapeutics Inc. $45M Opsona Therapeutics Ltd. $43.2M Radius Health Inc. $43M GenSight Biologics $41.6M

In the wake of the FDA's Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) 13-1 vote against the adequacy of AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s tivozanib, an inhibitor of all three vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors, in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) there were several losers: patients, the company and its staff. Acknowledging that the FDA would not in all likelihood approve tivozanib for this indication, the company revealed that it would not continue any further development with this program and

The likelihood that Congress will pass track-and-trace legislation for drugs this year got a little better last week when the House passed, by voice vote, H.R. 1919, which would establish standards for a national lot-level tracking system for drugs. The National Institutes of Health is recruiting subjects for the GRADE trial, which will compare the long-term benefits and risks of four widely used diabetes drugs in combination with metformin.

Company Amount Raised Vivus Inc. $220M Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. $175M OPKO Health Inc. $175M Mesoblast Ltd. $174.6M BTG plc $160.2M Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc. $110M Galapagos NV $70.7M Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. $70.4M e-Therapeutics plc $62.66M

Total: $80.7M Year to Date: $285.25M Company (Location) Partner (Location) Amt. (M) Details Date Algeta ASA (Oslo, Norway) Bayer AG (Leverkusen, Germany) €50 ($65.2) For the U.S. launch of Xofigo injection to treat castration-resistant prostate cancer, symptomatic bone metastases and no known visceral metastatic disease 5/31/13 Curis Inc. (Lexington, Mass.) Genentech Inc. (South San Francisco; unit of Roche AG) $4 For the Australian approval of Erivedge (vismodegib) for metastatic basal cell

Financings ARCA Biopharma Inc. closed a public offering and received about $18 million in net proceeds. Arcturus Therapeutics Inc. raised $1.3 million in a seed funding round. Akebia Therapeutics Inc. secured a $41 million Series C financing. Array BioPharma Inc. priced its public offering of senior notes for $115 million. BioTime Inc. is selling shares and warrants to raise up to $9.1 million from the offering. Edge Therapeutics Inc. said it raised $18 million in a Series C financing. Epizyme

Type of Financing January February March April May Total ($M) Public offerings 2,305.0 195.5 753.9 419.8 2,193.8 5,868.0 Public/other 530.4 218.9 599.3 103.5 682.3 2,134.5 Private biotechs 194.7 135.6 73.3 416.9 672.1 1,492.6 Total ($M) 3,030.1 550.0 1,426.5 940.2 3,548.2 9,495.1 Notes: Public offerings = Initial, follow-on. Private biotechs = Financings of private firms. Public/other = Other financings of public companies, including loans, bridge financings, exercises of warrants, debt

Company Amount Raised Ophthotech Corp. $175M Intrexon Corp. $150M Symphogen A/S $54.1M Auris Medical AG $50.8M Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. $48.2M Jounce Therapeutics Inc. $47M Effector Therapeutics Inc. $45M Opsona Therapeutics Ltd. $43.2M Radius Health Inc. $43M GenSight Biologics $41.6M

TOTAL: $682.32M Company (Location) Type Of Financing Number Of Shares, Units Or Warrants (M) Amount Raised (M) Investors; Placement Agents; Details Date Ambit Biosciences Corp. (San Diego) Private placement 3.13S $25 Ambit completed a $25M private placement of 3.13M shares at $8 apiece concurrently with its initial public offering, which raised an additional $65M 5/17/13 Arrowhead Research Corp. (Pasadena, Calif.) Private placement 14.3S $36 Arrowhead priced a private offering at $1.83

Company (Location) Funding Institution Amount (US$M) Type Details Date MARCH Actinobac Biomed Inc. (New Brunswick, N.J.) National Institutes of Health $0.202 Grant To study its drug candidate, Leukothera, in B-cell lymphomas 3/29/13 Addex Therapeutics SA (Geneva) Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research $1 Grant To help fund continued human studies of dipraglurant in Parkinson's disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia 3/20/13 Atlantic Healthcare Ltd. (Cambridge, UK) UK's Technology