Immunomedics Inc. and development partner UCB SA revised their development, collaboration and license agreement for the exclusive worldwide rights to develop, market and sell Immunomedics' epratuzumab for autoimmune disease indications.
One week after the European Commission approved the use of Avastin (bevacizumab) in combination with standard chemotherapy (carboplatin and paclitaxel) as a front-line treatment for women with advanced ovarian cancer, findings from two Phase III studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested the drug offered a modest but noticeable benefit over standard chemotherapy in terms of progression-free survival (PFS).
Immunomedics Inc. and development partner UCB SA revised their development, collaboration and license agreement for the exclusive worldwide rights to develop, market and sell Immunomedics' epratuzumab for autoimmune disease indications.
Baxter International Inc. and Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped on the biosimilars bandwagon with a global collaboration to develop and commercialize up to six follow-on biologics (FOBs).
A day after inking a potential $251 million agreement with Merck & Co. Inc. to license out its phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K)-delta research and development program, Exelixis Inc. trimmed its pipeline further, agreeing to terminate the preclinical programs that were part of a blockbuster 2009 PI3K collaboration with Sanofi-Aventis SA, of Paris.
True to its word, Exelixis Inc. started to prune its pipeline this week, handing Merck & Co. Inc. an exclusive worldwide license to its phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K)-delta research and development program, including XL499 – the company's most advanced preclinical PI3K-delta inhibitor – and related compounds.
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) recently revealed an ambitious effort to capitalize on its flagship genome sequencing program by pumping $416 million into four areas over four years to find the causes of rare inherited diseases and to accelerate the use of genome sequence information in the medical care of patients.
Privately held Metamark Genetics Inc. landed a big fish, inking a research, collaboration and license agreement with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Biotech Inc. potentially worth $365 million.
On Wednesday, Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed a shelf registration covering stock, debt securities, warrants and units. The company didn't leave investors in suspense for long. A day later, the company priced an underwritten public offering of 21.5 million shares of common stock at Wednesday's closing price of $10.42 per share, a discount of just 5.4 percent from Tuesday's closing price of $11.01.
One month after partner Napo Pharmaceuticals Inc. claimed to terminate their three-year-old collaboration to develop crofelemer for HIV-associated diarrhea, Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. plowed ahead by submitting a new drug application (NDA) for the drug to the FDA. The filing set in motion the 60-day clock for the FDA to conduct its review and determine whether to accept the NDA.
