Despite the fact that biotech companies developing biopharmaceuticals had a challenging month in October, with the 258 publicly listed companies tracked by the BioWorld Stock Report recording an average 7 percent drop in their share values, there is certainly no indication that the sector’s surge has stalled. In fact, despite predictions that biotech’s momentum has finally run out of steam, with less than two months to go until the end of the year biotech companies both large and small are still on target to post record-setting performances, a feat that has not been seen since 2000.
The Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Innovation Center, through J&J unit Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., is pledging up to $10 million up front per program, followed by as much as $145 million more for each, in a deal with Evotec AG that aims to find and target the true originators of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Immungene Inc. landed a $9 million Series A round from Ally Bridge Group, a health care investment firm with offices in Hong Kong and the U.S., to advance its antibody-cytokine fusion technology platform targeting cancer therapies.
Novabay Pharmaceuticals Inc. took a pounding in the stock market Thursday after it reported the failure of a Phase IIb study of its impetigo candidate, auriclosene. The study showed that the drug was safe and well tolerated but did not meet the primary clinical endpoint of the trial.
Just in time for the holidays, the FTC is gifting itself on the biopharma industry by finalizing a change to its premerger notification rule that makes transfers of “all commercially significant rights” to drug, biologic and in vitro diagnostic patents subject to antitrust review under the Hart Scott Rodino (HSR) Act.
• Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, and Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, reported data from a pooled analysis of 17 trials testing linagliptin in people with Type II diabetes and self-reported previous/current liver and biliary disease, with results showing linagliptin demonstrated a statistically significant placebo-adjusted reduction in HbA1c of 0.52 and 0.62 percent in patients with and without hepatobiliary disorders, respectively, from baseline to 24 weeks.
• Alvogen Pharma US Inc., of Pine Brook, N.J., said it finalized a transaction with Shionogi & Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, acquiring the exclusive rights to commercialize Naprelan (naproxen sodium) controlled-release tablets in the U.S.
• Biocryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said it dosed the first subject in OPuS-1 (Oral ProphylaxiS-1), a Phase IIa trial testing orally administered BCX4161 in patients with hereditary angioedema.
• Quest Pharmatech Inc., of Edmonton, Alberta, said it continued an exclusive license agreement with Stanford University to develop and market anti-MUC1 IgE technology for the treatment of cancer.
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