A Gilead Sciences Inc. earnings report filled with confidence about the upcoming launch of sofosbuvir and solid bottom-line beats boosted the company’s stock by 4.6 percent Wednesday.

Several lawmakers have put aside their political differences to come together on the Innovation Act, a sequel that takes up where the 2011 America Invents Act (AIA) left off in its reform of the U.S. patent system.

LONDON – Immunocore Ltd. has opened a Phase IIa trial of its T-cell cancer vaccine, IMGgp100, after demonstrating immune responses and evidence of tumor shrinkage in some of the 31 patients with late-stage melanoma who took part in the Phase I single-dose study.

Researchers have developed a nanoparticle, made up of siRNAs around a gold core, that could cross the blood-brain barrier and, in animals, silence a gene that is overexpressed most cases of glioblastoma multiforme.

• Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, reported third-quarter revenues of $13 million, with non-GAAP net income from continuing operations of $2.5 million, or 12 cents per diluted share, and net income of $2 million, or 9 cents per diluted share.

• Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Henderson, Nev., said it completed enrollment in a pivotal study of Captisol-enabled propylene glycol-free high-dose melphalan as a conditioning treatment prior to autologous transplant for patients with multiple myeloma.

• Impax Laboratories Inc., of Hayward, Calif., and Tolmar Therapeutics Inc., of Ft. Collins, Colo., said the FDA granted final approval of Tolmar’s abbreviated new drug application for its generic version of Solaraze Gel (diclofenac sodium 3 percent).

• Opthea Pty Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, a subsidiary of Circadian Technologies Ltd., inked an agreement with manufacturing and technology firm DSM Pharmaceutical Products covering process development and cGMP manufacturing for Opthea’s lead molecule, a soluble form of human VEGFR-3 that blocks the activity of both VEGF-C and VEGF-D, which promote blood and lymphatic vessel formation and are involved in the progression of eye diseases.

Two of five biomarkers found by Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. ended up predictive of benefit from MM-121 in 34 percent of patients who took part in the company’s failed Phase II trial against ovarian cancer – a finding that took some of the sting out of the overall outcome.