Gilead Sciences Inc. made its third major acquisition in the past eight months, buying privately held Calistoga Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Seattle, for $375 million cash and $225 million in potential milestones.
In the end, all it took was more cash now, and a shot at more cash later, for French suitor Sanofi-Aventis SA to win over Genzyme Corp., one of the grande dames of U.S. biotechnology.
Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc. continued to take care of its near-term cash needs in anticipation of a commercial launch of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) drug fidaxomicin by raising gross proceeds of $67.5 million in an underwritten public offering of 6 million shares of common stock priced at $11.25 per share, about 10.5 percent below the previous day's closing price.
Boron is a natural element found in fruits, vegetables, milk and coffee. Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. is betting $160 million plus that in the future it will be found in a lot of people with acne.
Almost exactly two months after closing a $100 million offering, and with $200 million cash in the bank, Geron Corp. said Wednesday that a new management team is taking over and will look for partners to share the cost of multiple Phase II trials for its telomerase inhibitor product candidate in indications including breast and lung cancers, a Phase II trial of GRN1005 in brain metastases and a pioneering Phase I trial of embryonic stem cell therapy for spinal cord injury.
If at first you don't succeed . . . Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. licensed rights to Relistor (methylnaltrexone bromide), its opioid-induced constipation (OIC) drug for patients with advanced disease, to Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in a deal potentially worth $350 million or more.
