Not all scientists want to spend their lives in a lab. Laxminarayan Bhat was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, and his desire to speed up drug development without sacrificing quality became the impetus for Reviva Pharmaceuticals Inc., which he founded in 2006.
Abbvie Inc. launched the second pivotal Phase III trial of elagolix in endometriosis, moving Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. one step closer to key catalysts for its product development pipeline. The 24-week, multinational, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study is almost identical in design to the initial Phase III, with both evaluating safety and efficacy in premenopausal women with moderate to severe pain associated with endometriosis.
Merck Serono SA spinout Obseva SA hit the ground running with a CHF32 million (US$34.7 million) Series A financing led by Sofinnova Partners and co-led by Sofinnova Ventures and Novo A/S.
Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc. moved closer to a new drug application (NDA)-enabling Phase III trial of lead candidate entinostat in metastatic breast cancer with a $26.6 million Series B financing.
In the end, Amgen Inc. and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. got the deal done. The companies disclosed Sunday evening that the boards of directors of both companies unanimously approved Amgen’s acquisition of South San Francisco-based Onyx for $125 per share in cash for a purchase price of $10.4 billion, or $9.7 billion net of Onyx’s estimated cash.
Privately held Immune Pharmaceuticals Ltd. swam against the tide of biotechs rushing to initial public offerings (IPO) by completing its merger with Epicept Corp., gaining access to the public markets and an expanded pipeline of cancer and pain compounds.
Antimicrobial developer Micurx Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $25 million in a Series B to fund the U.S. development of MRX-I, its oral oxazolidinone antibiotic targeting infections from multidrug-resistant gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).
Shares of Incyte Corp. (NASDAQ:INCY) lit up Wednesday morning after the company reported top-line results of ruxolitinib (Jakafi), which showed noticeable survival benefit in a Phase II study in refractory metastatic pancreatic cancer.
With lead hepatitis C virus (HCV) candidate simeprevir (TMC435) nearing the finish line and two nucleotide (nuc) polymerase inhibitor candidates for HCV in its pipeline, Medivir AB pulled the plug on its NS5A inhibitor program, citing lack of market demand, difficulty meeting its development timetable and the desire to reallocate in-house resources.
