Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and privately held Pier Pharmaceuticals Inc. completed an all-stock merger, adding a Phase II-ready obstructive sleep apnea compound to a pipeline now focused exclusively on brain-controlled sleeping disorders. Rebranding Cortex in the sleep apnea market, which has no pharmaceutical options, could create a biotech with greater value than the sum of its parts.
More than a decade after describing the anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic and neuroprotective effects of activated protein C (APC) in ischemic stroke and six years after forming a company to move that hypothesis toward treatment, ZZ Biotech LLC has advanced its initial compound, 3K3A-APC, into the clinic.
While the rest of the biotech world seems to embrace the arrival of nanotechnology in drug development, the FDA is still seeking to understand the nuances of products that contain nanoscale materials.
Fresh from a public offering that raised $46 million in working capital, Corcept Therapeutics Inc. sold a synthetic capped royalty on future sales of Korlym (mifepristone) and its next-generation GR-II antagonists to BioPharma Secured Debt Fund II, an investment fund managed by Pharmakon Advisors.
With the prospect of using its vaccine technology to smite mosquito-borne dengue fever, Arbovax Inc. also hopes to become a giant-killer by besting big pharma attempts to prevent dengue and other insect-borne diseases.
Fewer than five years after Adynxx Inc. was formed on the basis of "a great idea," the company disclosed that it moved lead compound AYX1 into the clinic, completing enrollment in a Phase I safety study in postoperative pain.
Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. took a double hit Thursday as FDA concerns about its recombinant human hyaluronidase (rHuPH20) enzyme sidetracked programs at two partners and sent the stock into a tailspin.
MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc. priced an underwritten public offering of 3.9 million shares of its common stock at $13.40 apiece, seeking to raise $52 million as the biotech prepares to resubmit the new drug application (NDA) for Levadex, its inhalation aerosol for the acute treatment of migraine.
Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. boldly joined the growing movement to reconfigure the hepatitis C virus (HCV) market by terminating its 2003 HCV development and commercialization agreement with Novartis AG.
Amgen Inc.'s second-quarter figures blasted past expectations, as the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based firm reported after market close Thursday total revenues of $4.5 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of $1.83, compared to consensus estimates of $4.1 billion and $1.54 per share.
