Tiny Viacyte Inc. is going after a whopper of an indication with a stem cell-derived cell therapy to treat Type I and insulin-dependent Type II diabetes. The novelty of its combination product, known as VC-01 , lured its largest investors – Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., Sanderling Ventures and Asset Management Company (Johnson Trust) – back to the table for a private equity round.
Necrotizing soft-tissue infection (NSTI) makes for attention-grabbing headlines using its common name of flesh-eating bacteria. The rapidly progressing condition, which triggers systemic toxicities and organ failure, strikes some 21,000 individuals each year in the U.S., alone, killing approximately one-third of them – usually after an arsenal of hospital-based treatment.
The recent matchmaking round by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which awarded $12.7 million from its Common Fund for nine cooperative agreements between big pharmas and academic research institutions, is one of the latest and potentially most ambitious initiatives to repurpose failed compounds.
A San Diego biotech with eight employees grabbed the spotlight at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Scientific Sessions in Chicago with the revelation that Type II diabetes drug metformin acts in the lower bowel, not in the bloodstream.
Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. suffered yet another blow in the development of its hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug pipeline, as the FDA requested additional preclinical safety data for IDX20963 ('963), the company's lead uridine nucleotide prodrug.
A month after filing for an initial public offering (IPO), PTC Therapeutics Inc. priced the offering, upsizing to 8.4 million shares at $15 apiece, above the midpoint of its proposed range of $13 to $16 per share, for a $125.6 million haul. The company granted underwriters the option to purchase up to 1.26 million additional shares at the offering price, potentially garnering another $18.8 million.
The potential value of cell therapy in wound care applications grabbed the attention of the biotech world last fall when Smith & Nephew plc, of London, picked up Fort Worth, Texas-based Healthpoint Biotherapeutics for $782 million in cash on the strength of its cell therapy product, HP802-247, in wound care.
Although the official start of summer is still a few days away, the biotech world already is producing a bumper crop of initial public offerings (IPO).
Two initiatives from different ends of the drug development spectrum are shining a bright light on nagging weaknesses in translational medicine and the urgent need to improve speed and efficiency in moving early stage discoveries into therapeutic candidates.
