Alterity Therapeutics Ltd. reported positive top-line phase II results for lead candidate ATH-434 for treating multiple system atrophy, a rare neurological disorder similar to Parkinson's disease.
Harness Therapeutics Ltd. has raised fresh financing to further develop its technology for upregulating the translation of mRNA into proteins, and in particular to take on a previously undruggable target in Huntington’s disease.
Lantheus Holdings Inc. is making waves in M&A with its second big deal of the month – and year – the acquisition of Evergreen Theragnostics Inc. for $250 million in cash up front and up to an additional $752.5 million in contingent payments. The transaction follows announcement of a definitive agreement to acquire Life Molecular Imaging Ltd., a subsidiary of Life Healthcare Group Holdings Ltd., on Jan. 13 for $350 million in cash at closing and a further $400 million in milestone payments.
In another cautionary tale of kicking all the tires before an acquisition, Pfizer Inc. agreed to a nearly $60 million settlement to resolve a whistleblower’s claims that Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd. was paying kickbacks to induce prescriptions of its migraine drug ahead of Pfizer’s $11.6 billion acquisition of the company in October 2022.
A U.S. Federal Claims Court judge shot down Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s accusations that the FDA disclosed the company’s trade secrets to generic competitors, finding that the trade secrets weren’t really secret or necessarily proprietary to Vanda.
To realize the promise of cell therapy for neurodegenerative disorders, S.Biomedics Co. Ltd. is looking to expand clinical trials of TED-A9, its stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD), to the U.S., having reaped positive results from a domestic phase I/IIa trial in November 2024.
Icelandic genomics company Arctic Therapeutics has closed a €26.5 million (US$27.6 million) series A, enabling it to assess if its lead drug AT-001, designed to treat a rare inherited amyloid disease, also could be used to treat more common forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. The program is currently in a phase IIb/III European trial in cystatin C amyloid angiopathy, an ultra-rare disease found only in Iceland that is caused by the L68Q mutation in the cystatin C gene.
Tris Pharma Inc.’s positive top-line data from a pivotal phase III study of cebranopadol in pain relief has the company thinking about an NDA submission later in the year. The company’s goal is to avoid the problems opioids have brought to treating pain.
A series of disappointments that drove Sage Therapeutics Inc.’s stock down by 85% since August of 2023 has evolved into an unsolicited takeout offer by partner Biogen Inc., followed by a lawsuit filed by Sage a week later. The two parties, both of Cambridge, Mass., first partnered in a $1.52 billion deal in 2020, primarily to develop Zurzuvae (zuranolone) for depression. The deal included Biogen taking a 10.2% equity stake in Sage, paying $104.14 per share, or $650 million total.
The largest analysis to date of patients taking GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) has investigated their effects on nearly 175 diseases, and found that compared to three other classes of diabetes medications, individuals with a prescription for GLP-1RAs had a reduced risk of 42 diseases, and an increased risk of 19.
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