The fact that U.S. markets were preparing to enter the long Labor Day weekend didn't stop two more biotechs from stepping out with initial public offerings (IPOs). Rhythm Pharmaceuticals Inc., which filed its S-1 as Rhythm Holding Co. LLC prior to its expected conversion from a Delaware limited liability to a Delaware corporation and an official name change, is seeking to raise $86.25 million.
Cellular immunotherapy firm Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Inc. landed $55 million in an oversubscribed series C less than eight months after closing its $34.4 million B round, raising the company's total haul to $107 million since launching in 2004.
The week started off with a bang for biotech as Swiss pharma Roche AG nabbed Intermune Inc. in an $8.3 billion all-cash deal. The price of $74 per share represented only a 38 percent premium to Friday's close but was a 63 percent premium to what Roche described as the "unaffected" closing price of Intermune's shares (NASDAQ:ITMN) on Aug. 12.
A year after its official launch, Curtana Pharmaceuticals Inc. stepped onstage holding a $7.6 million product development grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to fund its lead cancer therapy program, which is targeting the OLIG2 transcription factor (TF) – initially in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).
Shares of Novabay Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE MKT:NBY) plunged 44 percent, to a one-year low of 69 cents, Wednesday morning after the company reported that its NVC-422 (auriclosene) ophthalmic formulation failed to meet the primary and secondary endpoints in a phase II study in patients with adenoviral conjunctivitis.
Nearly two years after the Buck Institute for Research on Aging partnered with British firm Biotica Technology Ltd. to explore diseases of aging through the creation of Delos Pharmaceuticals Inc., a similar deal is afoot in the area of autoimmune disorders.
As the hot zone spread in the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, with Guinea the latest country to declare a public health emergency and send health workers to affected border points, and supply of the experimental antibody cocktail Zmapp allegedly ran dry, attention turned to other drug and vaccine prospects languishing in company pipelines.
Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. left open the tiniest prospect for success for dry eye candidate R348 after the Janus kinase/spleen tyrosine kinase (JAK/SYK) inhibitor missed both primary and secondary endpoints in a phase II study.
Tokai Pharmaceuticals Inc. joined the thinning ranks of biotechs pursuing initial public offerings (IPO) by filing a registration statement with the SEC seeking to raise $75 million, including overallotments, to advance its lead compound, galeterone.
Pharmathene Inc. won another moral victory when the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a ruling in its long-running dispute with Siga Technologies Inc. over the smallpox antiviral, tecovirimat. The court awarded Annapolis, Md.-based Pharmathene a lump sum payment – though the amount from a complex payment formula remains to be seen – for damages arising from the value of lost profits from sales of tecovirimat (previously ST-246 and Arestvyr).
