By Randall Osborne Editor Beggars on San Francisco street corners are known for nickel-and-diming passers-by with inventive ploys, such as a box full of kittens that need feeding, or jokes ready for the paid-for telling. Mediocre jokes, usually. Compare the pleadings of these bedraggled, poverty-stricken souls with pitches made by small biotechnology firms (also rife in the Bay Area) to the National Institutes of Health for Small Business Innovation Research grants. No, don't. The companies
Company* (Symbol) Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER Amgen Inc. (AMGN) Aranesp Darbepoetin alfa Anemia associated with certain types of chemotherapy Company submitted a BLA (9/20) Atrix Lab- oratories Inc. (ATRX) Leuprogel Three-Month Depot Atrigel formulation containing leuprolide acetate; injected subcutaneously Prostate cancer Company submitted an NDA (9/26) Avax Tech- nologies Inc. (AVXT) M-Vax and O-Vax Cancer
Company* (Symbol) Product Description Indication Status (Date) CARDIOVASCULAR Forbes Medi- Tech Inc. (Canada; FMTI TSE:FMI) FM-VP4 Cholesterol-lowering pharmaceutical High cholesterol Company received approval to start a Phase I/II trial in the Netherlands (9/24) INFECTION Genelabs Technol- ogies Inc. (GNLB) Vaccine For prevention of disease caused by the hepatitis E virus Company started a Phase II trial in Nepal (9/25) Hollis-Eden
Company* (Symbol) Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER AltaRex Corp. (Canada; OTC BB:ALRXF; TSE:AXO) OvaRex Modified murine monoclonal antibody that binds to CA125 cancer antigen Ovarian cancer Company completed a 345-patient pivotal trial; data still need to be evaluated (9/4) Atrix Laboratories Inc. (ATRX) Leuprogel Three-Month Depot Atrigel formulation containing leuprolide acetate; injected subcutaneously Prostate cancer Phase III data
By Randall Osborne Editor With bombs falling on Afghanistan even as rubble is still being cleared from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, nobody wants to hear about agricultural biotechnology, its leaders or its investment potential. Do they? The furor over genetically modified organisms in food looks like a silly fuss by comparison. It wasn't long ago that industry leaders were shaking their heads in chagrin over how easily and how far the GMO controversy, once limited to
Total: $118.76M Company (Symbol)# (M) Type Of Financing Number Of Shares, Units Or Warrants Amount Raised (M) Investors; Placement Agents; Details (Date)@ Cell Thera- peutics Inc. (CTIC) Private placement of convertible subordinated notes N/A $25 Cell Therapeutics raised an additional $25M aggregate principal amount of 5.7% convertible subordinated notes due 2008, bringing the total amount raised to $175M; the $25M represents an exercised overallotment option to a $150M private
I. COMMENCED TRADING IN SEPTEMBER INITIAL OFFERINGS Company (Symbol)# Date Filed Date Comm. Shares/ Units (M) Price Shares Out (M) Lead, Other Underwriters Gross (M) Net (M) There were no initial public offerings in September. Total: $0M Number of IPOs in August: 0 Average value of August IPOs: $0M Number of IPOs for 2001: 7 Total raised in IPOs in 2001: $207.05M Average value of IPOs in 2001: $29.58M FOLLOW-ON OFFERINGS Company (Symbol
By Randall Osborne Editor Can we agree, then, that the field of genomics is still sorting itself out even as it grows more crowded, with companies eager to leap aboard the bandwagon and that timing its yield for investors remains so problematic that they might just as well stick with good, solid, traditional "drug development" firms? Is that where it all stands now? Uh, no. Not according to Charles Duncan, analyst with Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Securities Inc., who says in a new
I. FINANCING OF PRIVATE BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: $267.78M Company Location Date Amt. (M) Details Amphora Discovery Corp. Research Triangle Park, N.C. 9/27 $25 Amphora raised $25M with investors Arch Venture Partners, California Public Employees' Retirement System, CW Group, MPM Asset Management, OrbiMed Advisors LLC, Venrock Associates and Versant Ventures Athenix Corp. Research Triangle Park, N.C. 9/11 $8 Athenix raised $8M in its first round led by Intersouth Partners
I. COMPLETED MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS Company Acquired (Country; Symbol) Acquired By Or Merged With (Country; Symbol) Date Announced Date Completed Value (M)*** Terms/Details Arcaris Inc.* Deltagen Inc. (DGEN) 7/26 8/15 $12.5 Deltagen acquired Arcaris for 765,000 new shares, $450,000 in cash, plus transaction fees and expenses, as well as another 50,000 shares for Arcaris employee options; an additional 550,000 shares will be issued upon the achievement of certain
By Randall Osborne Editor Nobody was ready. Since the band of suicide terrorists struck the U.S. last month, and hijacked with an embarrassing lack of sophisticated effort four jetliners for use as fuel-loaded missiles, video images of the World Trade Center's flaming twin towers have been burned into the minds of people all over the world. Pictures of the carnage in New York, and charred wreckage at the Pentagon, looked almost apocalyptic. But an oft-quoted Biblical warning about
I. MODIFIED AGREEMENTS Biotech Co.* (Country/Symbol) Pharma Co. (Country) (M) Change from original agreement Disclosed Funding Terms/Details (Date) Affymetrix Inc. (AFFX) GlaxoSmithKline plc (UK) Expanded agreement for Affymetrix GeneChip technology ND The agreement enables GSK research sites to design custom GeneChip arrays on smaller format sizes that will provide them with lower-cost arrays for use in high-throughput settings (9/10) Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd. (Japan
Biotech Co.* (Country/Symbol) Pharma Co. (Country) Product Disclosed Funding (M) Terms/Details (Date) Aastrom Biosciences Inc. (ASTM) BioWhittaker Inc. Aastrom's Dendricell products and BioWhittaker's X-Vivo cell culture media ND Co-marketing alliance for their cell therapy products (8/2) Amarin Corp. (UK; AMRN) Elan Corp. plc (Ireland) Permax ND Amarin gains exclusive U.S. marketing, sales and distribution rights to Permax tablets to treat Parkinson's disease; Amarin also entered an option
Biotech Co.* (Country/Symbol) Pharma Co. (Country) Type/Product Area Disclosed Funding (M) Terms/Details (Date) Affitech (Norway)* Nycomed Amersham Imaging (UK) Research agreement for the discovery of fully human antibodies for imaging applications ND Affitech will receive milestone and royalty payments (8/20) Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE:AVE) Ajinomoto Co. (Japan) Licensing agreement to develop and market AVE8062 ND Aventis receives rights to develop and market the product in exchange
By Randall Osborne Editor Something good happened in New York last week. As the city cleaned up after a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, as the nation mourned and prepared for war, ImClone Systems Inc. headquartered on Varick Street, about a mile from the rubble in which thousands perished said it had nailed down a potential $2 billion deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., the likes of which had never been seen in biotechnology. Samuel Waksal, ImClone's president and CEO
Company* (Symbol) Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER EntreMed Inc. (ENMD) Endostatin A protein drug candidate Neuroendocrine tumors Endostatin received orphan drug status from the FDA (8/15) EntreMed Inc. (ENMD) Panzem An orally available small-molecule drug candidate Multiple myeloma Panzem received orphan drug status from the FDA (8/15) Inex Pharmaceu- ticals Corp. (Canada; INEX) Onco TCS Therapeutic consisting of
Company* (Symbol) Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER Novogen Ltd. (Australia; NVGN) Phenoxodiol Oral formulation Prostate cancer Company will begin a clinical trial in Australia (8/20) Supratek Pharma Inc. (Canada)* SP1049C Combination of doxorubicin and Supratek's Biotransport carrier technology Advanced cancer Company is ready to start Phase II trials in Europe and the UK, following positive Phase I results (8/22**) CARDIOVASCULAR
By Karen Pihl-Carey Staff Writer Biotechnology companies focus on enzyme replacement therapies to treat rare diseases, such as Fabry disease and Gaucher disease, for various reasons. For one, they may hope to ease discomfort and pain, to prolong life, in those people who suffer from a disease usually ignored by drug makers because of its rarity. Also, they may hope to gain seven years of market exclusivity for finding an effective therapy for an orphan indication. Whatever the reason
Company* (Symbol) Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER AnorMED Inc. (Canada; TSE:AOM) ZD0473 Platinum-based anticancer agent Ovarian cancer AstraZeneca is taking a second look at the design and timetable of the Phase III trial after new data showed a lower response rate among platinum-resistant ovarian cancer patients than previously reported (8/31) Cell Pathways Inc. (CLPA) CP461 Selective apoptotic antineoplastic drug Chronic lymphocytic
I. FINANCING OF PRIVATE BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: $279.69M Company Location Date Amt. (M) Details AM Pharma BV Bilthoven, the Netherlands 8/15** EUR0.64 (US$0.59) AM Pharma raised US$590,000 in its first round of funding; investors included AM Pharma's management, private investors and BioPartner Startup Ventures Ark Therapeutics Ltd. London 8/29** #14.5 (US$21) Ark raised US$21M in its third financing round led by BankInvest; other investors were Merlin
By Randall Osborne Editor Beggars on San Francisco street corners are known for nickel-and-diming passers-by with inventive ploys, such as a box full of kittens that need feeding, or jokes ready for the paid-for telling. Mediocre jokes, usually. Compare the pleadings of these bedraggled, poverty-stricken souls with pitches made by small biotechnology firms (also rife in the Bay Area) to the National Institutes of Health for Small Business Innovation Research grants. No, don't. The companies