Synageva BioPharma Corp. rode the crest of its soaring stock to boost the size of its public offering by 25 percent, from approximately 1.9 million shares cited in its preliminary SEC filing to 2.4 million shares priced at Monday's closing price of $41.20.
Canadian biotechs QLT Inc. and Cardiome Pharma Corp. disclosed significant downsizings Monday, but the same strategic move put the companies on opposite business trajectories.
With the 2012 BIO International Convention behind us and the Fourth of July signaling summer vacation season in earnest, thoughts turn to visions of sun, sand and afternoons lounging in a deck chair. Again this year, BioWorld polled biotech execs, industry analysts and our own staff to construct a diverse list of titles for your reading pleasure. Whether your tastes run to historical intrigue or the classics, professional development or science fiction, you’ll find something of interest on our sixth annual list. Fiction: 16th Century England to 20th Century Los Angeles Diego Miralles, head of Janssen West Coast Research Center...
Baxter Ventures, the $200 million venture fund launched in July 2011 by Baxter International Inc., is on target to complete its first year with three equity investments and expects to close one or two more by the end of 2012, putting the fund on track to commit its first $50 million, including average initial investments of $1 million to $5 million plus potential follow-on funding.
Regulatory filings appear to be the next step for the LAMA/LABA bronchodilator combination of umeclidinium bromide (UMEC, or GSK573719) and vilanterol (VI), under development by GlaxoSmithKline plc and longtime partner Theravance Inc. The companies reported top-line results early Monday indicating the first four of seven Phase III studies of the investigational therapy showed superiority against both placebo and current standard of care in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Shares of Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc. struggled to find a floor Thursday after the company reported following the market's close Wednesday afternoon that its Phase IIb PEARL-SC study of blisibimod in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) failed to meet the primary efficacy endpoint – clinical improvement at 24 weeks in the SLE responder index for the pooled blisibimod dose groups – due to lack of efficacy in two low-dose groups.
Just two years after its launch, privately held Inhibrx LLC hooked Celgene Corp. in its first antibody license. The deal for the undisclosed target potentially could exceed $500 million, including up-front, clinical and regulatory milestone payments and royalties on commercial sales.
Although the findings seems counterintuitive considering the recent consolidation in biosciences, the fifth biennial Battelle/BIO State Bioscience Industry Development report, released last week at the BIO International Convention, indicated U.S. employment in the sector grew by 6.4 percent – or more than 96,000 jobs – between 2001 and 2010 compared to a 2.9 percent decline in overall U.S. private-sector jobs.
A month after efficacy findings from a pivotal Phase III study of VEN 307 (diltiazem hydrochloride cream) in anal fissures drove share prices higher, Ventrus Biosciences Inc. faced the market's wrath after its randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial of VEN 309 (iferanserin ointment) failed in hemorrhoidal disease.
BOSTON – Governments and nonprofits have hammered for years on the need to find cures or treatments for neglected tropical diseases and other conditions endemic to poverty, such as malaria and tuberculosis (TB).
