By Marie Powers Staff Writer Less than a year after the acquisition of Alvos Therapeutics Inc. gave Arrowhead Research Corp. a library of 42,000 individual targeting sequences, the company has attracted a second research collaboration and license deal. Shire plc will use Arrowhead's human-derived homing peptide platform to develop and commercialize targeted peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) using Shire's therapeutic payloads. In April, Arrowhead bought Alvos, of Waltham, Mass., in an all-stock deal
By Staff Reports The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a "pay-for-delay" case involving Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., in which the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claims Watson and other generic drugmakers violated the law by agreeing to accept $42 million for holding off the marketing of generic testosterone gels. The FTC named Watson, Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., Par Pharmaceutical Co. and Paddock Laboratories Inc. in a case that centers on Solvay's Androgel. (See BioWorld Today
By Sharon Kingman Staff Writer LONDON – Scientists have tracked the cause of a rare genetic condition that causes muscular weakness to a mutation affecting neurotransmission. The mutation is in the gene that encodes a molecule that transports choline into the neuron at the neuromuscular junction. Choline is a vital raw material required for the synthesis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Although the condition studied, which is known as distal hereditary motor neuropathy Type VII (dHMN-VII
By Cormac Sheridan Staff Writer Europe's cash-starved biotechnology sector has another €240 million (US$312 million) to aim for, following Sofinnova Partners' successful closing of its seventh fund. For the first time, Paris-based Sofinnova is focusing exclusively on life sciences, having previously invested more than a quarter of its capital, including its €260 million sixth fund, in IT. "Life sciences is what has provided most of the returns at Sofinnova over a long period of time, across all
By Peter Winter Editor The biopharmaceutical industry is certainly on a productive roll as measured by its output of new medicines. The number of new drug approvals appears to be steadily increasing year-over-year. The rate at which the FDA has approved new molecular entities (NMEs) – including those filed under new drug applications (NDAs) and therapeutic biologics filed under original biologic license applications (BLAs) is already ahead of last year's total of 30 (24 NMEs, and six biologics
By Marie Powers Staff Writer The third spin-off from the entrepreneurship partnership program (EPP) launched in April by Merck KGaA biopharmaceutical division Merck Serono SA in conjunction with the closure of its Geneva headquarters, Asceneuron SA is focusing on one of biotech's most elusive targets: Alzheimer's disease (AD). Launched in October with €5 million (US$6.4 million) in seed funding from Merck Serono, Asceneuron is seeking to advance Merck Serono's preclinical programs in AD and tau
By Anette Breindl Science Editor Arguments have gone back and forth for some time now on whether cancer cells use a developmental program called the epithelial to mesenchymal transition, or EMT, to metastasize. Two new studies suggested they do – but only for the first half of the metastatic process, pulling up stakes and leaving the primary tumor. In order to actually establish metastases at distant sites, though, it is critical that those wandering cells turn the EMT program back off. In
By Randy Osborne Staff Writer Two strikes – and investor suspense – led up to a home run for Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc., which tweaked the designs of previous, failed Phase III trials and thereby met all endpoints in the latest one with pimavanserin in Parkinson's disease psychosis (PDP). "We did that in a smart way, so that we minimized placebo response and succeeded in suppressing variability," said Acadia CEO Uli Hacksell. "I think we have found a formula for success." The nondopaminergic
By Anette Breindl Science Editor While searching for mechanisms of resistance to one targeted cancer therapy, researchers have identified a signaling mechanism that can lead to resistance to multiple targeted and chemotherapy cancer drugs alike. Loss of the protein MED12 activates signaling of transforming growth factor beta, or TGF-beta. And "that activation of TGF-beta signaling can cause resistance to... a broad range of cancer drugs: both targeted therapies as well as chemotherapies," Rene
By Anette Breindl Science Editor Many of the scientists who are attempting to harness stem cells for tissue repair and regeneration do so via a transplantation approach. That pathway consists of finding a source of stem cells and transplanting them. The stem cells themselves might be transplanted, or they might be coaxed into the desired mature cell type or something on the pathway to it first. Either way, it is a transplantation approach. But another possibility is to identify small molecules
By Randy Osborne Staff Writer Think "rare, pediatric diseases" and you tend to think "drug cocktail that changes over time" and "almost impossible to get enough investors, given the risk vs. return, not to mention the long development period." It doesn't have to be that way, said Gene Williams, CEO of Cambridge, Mass-based DART Therapeutics Inc. A biotech firm owned by patient foundations – the Nash Avery Foundation and Charley's Fund – DART hopes to turn Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD) into
By Anette Breindl Science Editor As far as the relationship between Alzheimer's disease and amyloid plaques is concerned, the mystery continues. At a recent talk at the National Institutes of Health, Harvard University's Jie Shen summed up the evidence regarding the so-called amyloid hypothesis, that is, the notion that beta-amyloid is the cause of neurodegeneration and memory loss in Alzheimer's disease. She also gave an overview of her own research, which has led her to conclude that loss-of
By Peter Winter BioWorld Insight Editor There is no doubt that the biotechnology industry is truly global and that emerging markets have become extremely important for pharmaceutical companies. That is not surprising considering the fact that countries such as China, Brazil, Russia and India will represent 30 percent of the projected total global pharmaceutical sales of about $1.2 trillion in 2016, up from 20 percent of the total of $955 billion in 2011. The data from IMS Health reinforces the
By Anette Breindl Science Editor The New York Times profiled the Greek island Ikaria recently as "the island where people forget to die" for its large population (relatively speaking) of healthy individuals who are older than 80. Delos Pharmaceuticals Inc. is named after another Greek Island, and for another reason. But the company, which is a joint project of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and British firm Biotica Technology Ltd., also hopes that its future customers will, if perhaps
By Anette Breindl Science Editor Intellectual property (IP) is a cornerstone of the drug discovery industry. But as that industry is changing, some are questioning whether that cornerstone is starting to do more harm than good, at least the way it currently is constructed. Though it is not the only type of patent, composition of matter patents are a major kind. Most patented chemicals, though, never see the light of a pharmacy shelf, creating a mismatch between where value is realized, and where
By Nuala Moran Staff Writer LONDON – Kymab Ltd. called up two industry veterans to help with the commercialization of its new platform technology for generating monoclonal antibodies in transgenic mice, as it prepares both to out-license access to the technology and use it to start an internal drug discovery effort. David Chiswell, co-founder and former CEO of Cambridge Antibody Therapeutics plc, and Christian Itin, CEO of Cytos Biotechnology and former CEO of Micromet until its $1.2 billion
By Jennifer Boggs Managing Editor Three years after a new drug application was first submitted for leukemia drug omacetaxine mepesuccinate, during which the product moved twice into different hands via M&A transactions, the FDA granted a long-awaited nod Friday. Branded Synribo, the drug is approved for treating adults with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a blood and bone marrow disease, specifically those whose disease has progressed following treatment from at least two tyrosine kinase
By Anette Breindl Science Editor Researchers reported last week that the retroviral vector that is used for gene delivery in the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, does more than just ferry its cargo into cells. It activates the innate immune system – and that activation is critical for efficient reprogramming. Senior author John Cooke said he hopes that by learning more about the process, which he and his team have termed "transflammation," transforming cells via proteins
By Nuala Moran Staff Writer LONDON – Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd. (OBT) has landed a "transformational" deal with Menarini, in which the Italian pharma company is to invest €800 million (US$1 billion) in a portfolio of five antibody and antibody-conjugate drugs discovered by OBT. Under the collaboration, Menarini will be responsible for the manufacture and clinical development of each product, with OBT providing proprietary cancer targets, antibody generation and drug conjugation technologies
By Catherine Shaffer Staff Writer AstraZeneca plc will be Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s development and commercialization partner for linaclotide in the vast China territory. Ironwood filed a clinical trial application with China's State Food and Drug Administration for a Phase III study of linaclotide in irritable bowel with constipation (IBS-C). The companies will share the responsibilities and profits of advancing the drug in China, with London-based AstraZeneca taking a 55 percent share of
By Marie Powers Staff Writer Less than a year after the acquisition of Alvos Therapeutics Inc. gave Arrowhead Research Corp. a library of 42,000 individual targeting sequences, the company has attracted a second research collaboration and license deal. Shire plc will use Arrowhead's human-derived homing peptide platform to develop and commercialize targeted peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) using Shire's therapeutic payloads. In April, Arrowhead bought Alvos, of Waltham, Mass., in an all-stock deal