BILBAO, Spain – Visitors to the opening day of BioSpain 2012 last week had to pass through airport-style security in the foyer of the Bilbao Exhibition Center (BEC). The measures were put in place ahead of the arrival of Felipe, the Prince of Asturias, and heir to the Spanish throne. Armed police waited expectantly in the plaza at the front of the BEC. An opening press conference was swiftly wrapped up to allow senior figures in Spain's biotechnology industry to form a welcoming line-up outside
By Cormac Sheridan | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 26, 2012
LONDON – Advanced Accelerator Applications SA has set itself the challenge of servicing 42 centers across the U.S. and Europe, in a 200-patient Phase III trial of Lutathera, a radiolabeled peptide that has a shelf life of only 72 hours. The company is trying to strike a balance between speedy recruitment in the orphan indication of inoperable progressive midgut carcinoid and the complexities that arise from the need to manufacture and ship the product at speed, on a patient-by-patient basis
By Nuala Moran | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Santaris Pharma A/S and Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc. both put a positive gloss on the latest twist in their ongoing patent litigation. A federal court in the Southern District of California this week stayed all discovery in the case, apart from that related to the Santaris safe harbor defense, which it previously raised in a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the complaint. "What the judge has said is right now we are only considering the safe harbor issue, so there is a limited discovery
By Cormac Sheridan | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 26, 2012
TopoTarget A/S' positive results from the BELIEF pivotal trial with belinostat could mean upside for U.S. partner Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., if the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor is approved for peripheral T-cell lymphoma, but the latest outcome with belinostat is "not really a game changer for this drug," said Decision Resources analyst Lisa Murch. Still, data had investors in TopoTarget, of Copenhagen, Denmark, rejoicing Friday, when the company's stock (COPENHAGEN:TOPO) closed at
By Randy Osborne | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 26, 2012
LONDON – A new-look, 80-strong small-molecule drug discovery and development company has emerged from Abbott, following the management buyout of the former Solvay Pharmaceuticals R&D laboratory in Dijon, France. Inventiva begins its independent existence with a five-year contract from Abbott to carry out preclinical development of two existing programs in autoimmune disease and diabetic nephropathy, making it immediately self-sustaining. In addition to taking ownership of the Dijon facility
By Nuala Moran | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 26, 2012
LONDON – New therapies for conditions such as cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure could be developed as a result of a better understanding of the minute regulation of gene transcription in heart muscle cells. Blocking the activity of small RNA molecules in heart muscle cells – cardiomyocytes – of mice can, researchers have shown, prevent the development of heart failure and cardiac hypertrophy in an animal model of those conditions. The RNA molecules involved are known as microRNAs. They are
By Sharon Kingman | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 26, 2012
BILBAO, Spain – The coming months will be a crucial period in the development of Zeltia Group, Spain's flagship biotechnology company, which is due to report data from several clinical trials, including a Phase IIb trial of Nypta (tideglusib) in Alzheimer's disease and a Phase III trial of Aplidin (ptilidepsin) in multiple myeloma. Given Madrid-based Zeltia's overwhelming prominence within the country's otherwise immature sector, success in either indication would represent a major confidence
By Cormac Sheridan | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 26, 2012
LONDON – Wellington Partners announced the first closing of its fourth life science fund at €70 million (US$90.8 million), putting the firm well on to the way to its final target of €120 million and of achieving a significant increase over its third life science fund, which raised €78 million. While the main base of investors is in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, the fourth fund also has attracted investors from the Middle East and the U.S. Alongside institutional investors including the
By Nuala Moran | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 26, 2012
3SBio Inc., of Shenyang, China, said its board received a nonbinding proposal letter from Chairman and CEO Jing Lou and CPE China Fund LP to acquire the company's outstanding shares in a going private transaction valued at $15 per American Depositary Share in cash, subject to certain conditions. CPE China Fund is an exempted limited partnership registered in the Cayman Islands and a China-focused private equity fund associated with CITIC Private Equity Funds Management Co. Ltd. The buyers
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Taking advantage of a summer stock climb on the back of its allogeneic cell therapy pipeline, Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. is nearly doubling its cash position with a $32 million public offering. The Haifa, Israel-based biotech is selling 8 million units – each comprising one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase 0.35 of a share – priced Thursday at $4 apiece. The news sent shares (NASDAQ:PSTI) down 15 percent Thursday, though they stabilized somewhat Friday, closing at $3.83, down
By Jennifer Boggs | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The €80 million (US$104.9 million) investment by dievini Hopp BioTech Holding GmbH & Co. KG in Tuebingen, Germany-based CureVac GmbH is not only its single biggest bet to date, but also a clear point of differentiation between itself and most other private investors in European biotechnology. (See story this issue.) Dievini Hopp, of Walldorf, Germany, represents the interests of Dietmar Hopp, the wealthy philanthropist and co-founder of software titan Sap AG, also of Walldorf. Although plenty
By Cormac Sheridan | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 19, 2012
With positive overall survival data from a Phase II trial in hand, 4SC AG aims to move its pan-histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDAC) resminostat into a pivotal Phase III trial in second-line hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the first half of next year. The Planegg, Germany-based drug developer disclosed last week that resminostat, combined with Nexavar (sorafenib) resulted in median overall survival of eight months in patients (n = 26) who had previously progressed on sorafenib alone. Patients
By Cormac Sheridan | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 19, 2012
LONDON – Virttu Biologics Ltd. hired biotech veteran Steven Powell as CEO, with a brief to reshape strategy and turbo-charge efforts to commercialize oncolytic virus Seprehvir, a broad-spectrum product that has yet to reach the advanced stages of clinical development despite having been tested in more than 75 patients, in a number of solid tumors. "I think the immediate challenge is to use what in the case of Virttu is a considerable volume of intellectual property and both clinical and
By Nuala Moran | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 19, 2012
LONDON – An antibiotic compound originally described in 1953, but never developed, could hold the key to new treatments for multidrug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. The compound, called pyridomycin, is effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, including common strains resistant to treatment with the commonly used drug, isoniazid. It targets the same enzyme as isoniazid, but in a different place. Steward Cole, director of the Global Health Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a
By Sharon Kingman | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 19, 2012
LONDON – Vasopharm GmbH announced that the Phase IIa trial of its nitric oxide inhibitor VAS203 not only cleared all the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic hurdles, but also led to "substantially improved" neurological recovery at six months in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. "These remarkable results represent a major breakthrough in the treatment of TBI," according to lead investigator, John Stover, professor of Surgical Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Zürich
By Nuala Moran | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 19, 2012
CureVac GmbH closed what will in all likelihood go down as the largest private equity round in European biotechnology this year, an €80 million (US$104.9 million) investment from dievini Hopp BioTech Holding GmbH & Co. KG, which will enable it to take forward two mRNA-based therapeutic cancer vaccines, in clinical development for prostate cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The deal is both a major endorsement of CureVac's RNActive platform technology and a marker of dievini Hopp's
By Cormac Sheridan | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 19, 2012
ALK-Abello A/S, of Horsholm, Denmark, said it inked a co-promotion deal with MSD (known as Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., in the U.S. and Canada) for Grazax, a fast-dissolving, once-daily allergy immunotherapy for home treatment of grass pollen allergy in France. Under the terms, ALK will book all sales of Grazax, and MSD will receive a co-promotion fee. Arsanis Biosciences GmbH, of Vienna, Austria, said it received two grants involving the Austrian Research Promotion Agency
BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 12, 2012
F2G Ltd., of Manchester, UK, will use a new $30 million equity financing round to jump a lead candidate from its F3 series of preclinical compounds into first-in-man studies. F2G is targeting a neglected market for fungal infections affecting immune-compromised patients who face a high mortality rate even with the best standard treatments. According to F2G Executive Chairman Richard White, the new F3 series replaces the company's previous lead compound, FG3622, for which it raised $11.7
By Catherine Shaffer | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 12, 2012
LONDON – Symphogen A/S has handed Merck KGaA worldwide exclusive rights to its Phase II cancer antibody product, Sym004, in a deal with a potential value of €500 million (US$631.6 million). Of that, €20 million is payable up front, with €225 million to come in clinical and regulatory milestones, followed by a further €250 million for hitting sales targets. In addition, Merck will fully fund all development and commercialization work on the first-in-class product, which consists of a mixture of
By Nuala Moran | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 12, 2012
With two key value inflection points approaching, Biotie Therapies Oy did some advance corporate housekeeping by adding €30 million (US$38.3 million) to its coffers, to strengthen its position for any upcoming licensing negotiations. Danish pharma firm H. Lundbeck A/S is making an equity investment of €10 million in the firm, as part of a tweaking of an agreement between the two companies on Biotie's lead drug Selincro (nalmefene), an opioid receptor antagonist under regulatory review as a
By Cormac Sheridan | BioWorld International | Wednesday, September 12, 2012
BILBAO, Spain – Visitors to the opening day of BioSpain 2012 last week had to pass through airport-style security in the foyer of the Bilbao Exhibition Center (BEC). The measures were put in place ahead of the arrival of Felipe, the Prince of Asturias, and heir to the Spanish throne. Armed police waited expectantly in the plaza at the front of the BEC. An opening press conference was swiftly wrapped up to allow senior figures in Spain's biotechnology industry to form a welcoming line-up outside