Company** Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER Aronex Pharmaceuticals Inc. Atragen Liposomal formulation of all-trans retinoic acid; induces tumor cells to differentiate into mature normal cells (injection) Advanced renal cell carcinoma (combination therapy with alpha interferon) Initiated Phase I/II trial (1/7) Diatide Inc. NeoTect Small molecule synthetic peptide labeled with technetium-99m; peptide designed to adhere to somatostatin
By Jennifer Van Brunt Editor Two biotechnology companies that spent years battling in court over rights to a method for making fully human monoclonal antibodies are now set to wage a war of a different sort in the clinic. Both Medarex Inc. and Abgenix Inc. started Phase I clinical trials last month on potential new therapies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Both companies' products are fully human monoclonal antibodies produced in transgenic mice; as such, they are the first of a new breed of
Company** Product Description Indication Type Action (Date) CANCER British Biotech plc (U.K.) Marimastat Oral matrix metallo proteinase inhibitor designed to inhibit blood flow to tumors Ovarian cancer (as monotherapy) Discontinued pivotal Phase III trial in Europe; design of trial insufficient for registration (12/16) Cel-Sci Corp. Multikine Natural mixture of human cytokines, including interleukin-2 Treatment of head and neck cancer prior to surgery or radiation therapy
Company** Product Description Indication Type Action (Date) CANCER AltaRex Corp. (Canada) OvaRex Anti-idiotype induction therapy-based vaccine; consists of modified murine monoclonal antibody that binds to CA125 cancer antigen To delay time to disease recurrence in advanced ovarian cancer FDA granted product fasttrack status (12/21) Aronex Pharmaceuticals Inc. Atragen Liposomal formulation of all-trans retinoic acid; induces tumor cells to differentiate into mature normal cells
Company** Product Description Indication Type Action (Date) CANCER Cel-Sci Corp. Multikine Natural mixture of human cytokines, including interleukin-2 Treatment of head and neck cancer prior to surgery or radiation therapy Received permission to initiate Phase II trial in Poland (1/8) Multikine Natural mixture of human cytokines, including interleukin-2 Treatment of head and neck cancer prior to surgery or radiation therapy in patients with newly diagnosed disease Received
Company** Product Description Indication Type Action (Date) CANCER Nexell Therapeutics Inc.majority-owned subsidiary of Vimrx Pharmaceuticals Inc.) Isolex 300 and Isolex 300i Stem cell selection systems; devices that separate CD34+ stem cells from peripheral blood (Isolex 300 is semi-automated; Isolex 300i is fully automated) To support enrichment of CD34+ cells and reduction of non-target cells (including tumor cells) in autologous transplants in B-cell malignancies FDA sent
By Jennifer Van Brunt Editor Of the 39 new medicines approved for sale in the U.S. by the FDA in 1998, nine were biologics Enbrel, Herceptin, Remicade, Simulect, Synagis, Thymoglobulin, Certiva, LYMErix and RotaShield. This means that close to one-quarter (actually, 23 percent) of new medicines entering the market are now biological products, the majority created via biotechnological means. That's even better than in 1997, when about 20 percent (10 of 49) of the new medicines approved by
Rank Name Company Potential Realizable Value Of Option Grants ($000) FYE Value Of Exercisable In-The-Money Options ($000) Shares Of Company's Common Stock Owned By CEO (000) Percent Of Company Owned By CEO (%) 1 Herbert M. Stein (1) Organogenesis Inc. 10,578 27,277 1,480 6.0 2 Gordon M. Binder Amgen Inc. 7,443 59,348 1,514 0.6 3 James R. Tobin (2) Biogen Inc. 6,699 4,748 542 0.7 4 Cam L. Garner Dura Pharmaceuticals Inc. 5,886 331 94 0.2 5 Michael J
Rank Name Company Base Salary ($000) Bonus ($000) Long-Term Compensation ($000) Other Annual Compensation ($000) Total Direct Cash Compensation ($000) Cumulative Total Return ($) 1 Gordon M. Binder Amgen Inc. 799 638 8,864 242 10,543 153 2 Peter Johnson Agouron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (1) 395 230 5,692 3 6,320 606 3 Cam L. Garner Dura Pharmaceuticals Inc. 397 475 4,245 32 5,149 725 4 Edward E. Penhoet (2) Chiron Corp. 426 185 4,362 13 4,986 165 5
By Lisa Piercey Special To BioWorld Financial Watch In 1997, the average chief executive officer of a biotechnology company took home $596,000 in cash compensation, according to a new BioWorld report on CEO compensation in the industry. This included a $283,000 base salary, $69,000 in bonuses and $244,000 from the exercise of stock options. Of course, not all biotech CEOs got bonuses or exercised options in 1997. In fact, of the hundreds of CEOs whose annual pay packages were included in
I. FINANCING OF PRIVATE BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANIES: $91.0M Company Location Date Amt. (M) Investors Antigenics LLC (4th round) New York 1/11 $28 Lead investors in this round included Deutsche Bank AG, Elan Corp., Sigma-Tau, Zeneca Group plc, Oracle Strategic Partners and SAC Capital Atugen Biotechnology GmbH (start-up funding) Berlin 1/29 $13 Atugen completed its initial financing of $20M; MPM Asset Management provided $7M in 6/98;other sources include the German Federal Ministry
Company (Symbol) Type Of Financing Number Of Shares, Units Or Warrants (M) Amount Raised (M) Investors; Placement Agents; Details (Date) Avanir Pharmaceuticals (AVNR) Equity line $10 Avanir secured a $10M equity line from Promethean Investment Group LLC; Avanir can access the $10M over 2 years by selling common stock at threshold prices (to be set by Avanir); pricing above threshold is at a discount to market; no transaction occurs if the stock price is below $1.064 per share
I. COMMENCED TRADING IN JANUARY INITIAL OFFERINGS There were no initial public offerings in January. FOLLOW-ON OFFERINGS There were no follow-on offerings in January. II. FILED AND PENDING Company (Symbol) Date Filed Shares/Units (M) Price Range Shares Out (M) Lead, Other UWs Value@ ($M) INITIAL OFFERINGS Albany Molecular Research Inc.* 1/5 2.2S $17-$19 12.2 INGB; HQ $37.4 Intracel Corp. 7/9;1/25 4.0S $12-$14 15.4 DLJ; PJI $48 Invitrogen Corp.** 12/10
Type of Financing Jan $(M) Public offering, 0 Private rounds, 91.0 PIPE, 25.5 Public/other, 187.2 Milestone payments and equity 54.3 investments from corporate partners TOTAL ($M): 358.0 NOTES: Public offering = Initial, follow-on Private rounds = Financing of private firms PIPE = Private Investment in Public Entity, shares sold at a discount to market Public/other = Other financings of public companies, including loans, bridge financings, sales of business units
By Jennifer Van Brunt Editor A small biotechnology service company located in the frozen territory of upstate New York has managed to break the ice surrounding biotech public offerings on the Nasdaq National Market. Albany Molecular Research Inc., of Albany, has not only closed an initial public offering (IPO), which grossed $50 million, but it sold more shares at a higher price per share than anticipated. The company priced 2.5 million shares up from 2.2 million at $20.00 each above
By Jennifer Van Brunt Editor Year after year, investment banking firm Hambrecht & Quist LLC (H&Q) has proven one of biotech's most loyal and successful financiers, and 1998 was no exception. Despite the apparent dearth of financing opportunities for the biotech sector especially in the last half of 1998 stock offerings underwritten by the San Francisco-based firm grossed about $219 million in total proceeds. But while H&Q-backed offerings grossed more than those underwritten by any
Company** Product Description Indication Status (Date) CANCER Aronex Pharmaceuticals Inc. Atragen Liposomal formulation of all-trans retinoic acid; induces tumor cells to differentiate into mature normal cells (injection) Advanced renal cell carcinoma (combination therapy with alpha interferon) Initiated Phase I/II trial (1/7) Diatide Inc. NeoTect Small molecule synthetic peptide labeled with technetium-99m; peptide designed to adhere to somatostatin