LONDON – Merck Serono is enlarging its venture fund from €40 million to €100 million (US$51 million to $128 million) – increasing its capacity to invest in early stage companies, technologies and products that can be shaped up for the company's internal pipeline. "We started four years ago with €40 million and that was always on the understanding it was not enough for a sustainable long-term fund," said Roel Bulthuis, head of the MS Ventures fund. "What the organization has seen is that the

Why PARP Inhibitors Kill BRCA Mutants Inhibitors of the enzyme poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) selectively kill cells with BRCA mutations, and researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered one reason that they do so. In their studies, the authors showed that poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) recruits BRCA1, in complex with the protein BARD1, to sites of DNA damage. When PAR polymerization is inhibited, such binding cannot occur, and BRCA1 cannot be recruited to repair DNA damage. Many BRCA1

PTC Therapeutics Inc. made last week a biotech trifecta for initial public offerings (IPO), filing an S-1 with the SEC seeking to raise up to $85 million. Earlier, gene therapy firm bluebird bio Inc. and Esperion Therapeutics Inc., a company working on a drug to lower LDL-cholesterol, joined the IPO queue. PTC, which filed as an emerging growth company under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, plans to list its common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "PTCT." The

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said preclinical data showed that RNAi therapeutics targeting ALAS-1 (aminolevulinate synthase-1) can completely block the abnormal production of toxic intermediates of the heme biosynthesis pathway that cause the symptoms and disease pathology of acute intermittent porphyria (AIP). Data were presented at the International Congress of Porphyrins and Porphyrias in Lucerne, Switzerland. Alnylam is developing ALN-AS1 as part of its "Alnylam 5x15

Through the indirect targeting of toll-like receptors via their co-receptor, researchers have boosted the immune response to infection, and helped animals with experimentally induced sepsis fight off the bacteria that set off the septic response. Given that one effect of sepsis is massive hyperinflammation, the notion of helping sepsis patients by boosting their innate immune response might seem counterintuitive at best, or like the punch line of a bad mother-in-law joke, at worst. But the

As sales of Incyte Corp.'s approved JAK inhibitor Jakafi (ruxolitinib) begin to pick up steam, a competing myelofibrosis candidate from Sanofi SA moved a step closer to market. The Paris-based big pharma, which gained rights to JAK drug SAR302503 in its 2010 buyout of TargeGen Inc., reported solid top-line data from the Phase III study dubbed JAKARTA, showing that both dose groups of the drug hit the primary endpoint of reducing spleen volume. The study was conducted under a special protocol

Taking an inventive route to drug development, Oncos Therapeutics Ltd. has its roots in a type of compassionate use program that was started in 2007 at the international comprehensive cancer center, Docrates, in Helsinki, Finland. The Advanced Therapy Access Program for experimental treatments with the company's oncolytic viruses was made possible through European Union (EU) regulation EC/1394/2007, designed to improve safe access by patients across the EU to gene therapy, somatic cell therapy

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of New York, said it has notified the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) of its intention to voluntarily delist its $2 convertible preferred stock from the NYSE, a decision driven by the low number of shares outstanding, low daily trading volume, listing fees and compliance administration costs. Mylan Inc., of Pittsburgh, said its subsidiary Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. has shipped Fenofibrate Tablets, 48 mg and 145 mg. Mylan Pharmaceuticals received final approval from

Aeterna Zentaris Inc., of Quebec City, added Marcel Aubut, David A. Dodd, José P. Dorais, Carolyn Egbert, Juergen Ernst, Pierre Lapalme and Gérald Limoges to its board. AltheRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Exton, Pa., named Jim Bennethum CEO, appointed Charles E. Becker board chairman and named Jeffrey O'Donnell and Anthony Zook to its new board of directors. BG Medicine Inc., of Waltham, Mass., appointed Paul Sohmer president and CEO. Biota Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Rockville, Md., added Anne

UCB SA, of Brussels, Belgium, said data from a double-blind, placebo-controlled study found that Neupro (rotigotine transdermal system) reduced total nocturnal systolic blood pressure (NSBP) elevations associated with periodic limb movements during sleep (PLMS) and total PLMS in patients with idiopathic moderate to severe restless legs syndrome (RLS)/Willis-Ekbom disease. The data were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hypertension. Results showed that rotigotine

Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., achieved 50 percent enrollment of the total projected enrollment required for its Phase I trial to evaluate the safety and preliminary efficacy of human adipose-derived mesenchymal progenitor cells therapy for knee osteoarthritis. No severe adverse effects have been reported so far. Cytos Biotechnology AG, of Zurich, Switzerland, and Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) said the first healthy volunteer has been

Oncothyreon Inc.'s detailed results for its cancer immunotherapy product L-BLP25 (formerly Stimuvax), reported at the meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago, failed to comfort nervous investors. Having previously missed its primary endpoint of overall survival (OS) in non-small-cell lung cancer, the company said that median OS was 25.6 months compared to 22.3 months for the placebo group, with a "p" value of 0.123. A post hoc analysis in a subgroup of 806

Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif., reported findings from analyses of Vectibix (panitumumab) in combination with Folfox, an oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy regimen, as first-line treatment in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). The analyses included the description of new predictive biomarkers of clinical response to Vectibix, activating mutations in KRAS (beyond exon 2) and in NRAS, collectively referred to as RAS. The RAS biomarkers were identified in a predefined retrospective subset

MedImmune Inc., part of AstraZeneca plc, started the first patient in its Phase III hairy-cell leukemia (HCL) trial with its first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate moxetumomab pasudotox (MP), a CD22 immunotoxin made up of an anti-CD22 antibody fused to a toxin. The molecule binds to CD22, gets internalized and processed, and then releases the toxin payload to blast the tumor. MP looked promising in Phase I, with a manageable safety profile, which led London-based AstraZeneca to make the

AnaptysBio Inc., of San Diego, disclosed a contract award from the U.S. government for the development of highly thermostable anti-ricin antibodies for biodefense applications. Under the terms of AnaptysBio's contract with the Science and Technology Corp., AnaptysBio will be responsible for delivering anti-ricin antibodies to the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center, an agency of the U.S. Army. The contract is funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and follows successful completion

Like the troll of yore demanding his pound of goat flesh as the toll for using his bridge, patent trolls are threatening to swallow up biotech start-ups – just as they have other businesses that strayed too close to the vague boundary lines of their intellectual property. So far, patent trolls, also known as patent licensing companies, haven't gotten too gruff with drug- and devicemakers, but it looks like that could change, Jeff Grainger, managing partner of the Foundry LLC, a medical device

TAIPEI, Taiwan – In what is likely one of the first attempts by a foreign biopharma to complete the full range of clinical trials in China for a new biologic, leading to regulatory and market approval by Chinese drug approval authorities, therapeutic antibodies specialist RuiYi Inc., of La Jolla, Calif., and Shanghai, entered a collaboration agreement with Genor BioPharma Co. Ltd., of Shanghai, to develop its anti-IL-6 monoclonal antibody RYI-008 for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The deal

Despite losing a potentially lucrative FLT3 inhibitor partnership with Astellas Pharma Inc. barely two months ago, Ambit Biosciences Corp. forged ahead with its initial public offering (IPO). The San Diego-based biotech priced about 8.1 million shares at $8 apiece for gross proceeds of about $65 million. The pricing came in lower than Ambit had hoped – it set a $13 to $15 price range earlier this month – but the firm increased the number of shares offered to make up the difference. Proceeds