EpiTherapeutics ApS is a little company with big plans. Last December, the Copenhagen, Denmark-based firm inked its first drug discovery agreement with Abbott, of Abbott Park, Ill., to develop cancer drugs by making small-molecule inhibitors against selected epigenetic oncology targets.
After nearly a decade of effort, biopharmaceutical development company Cytogel Pharma LLC recently moved its lead candidate – a chemically stabilized analogue of endomorphin (EM) 1 designed to treat acute and chronic pain – into the clinic.
Akebia Therapeutics Inc. raised $22 million in a Series B preferred stock financing that will allow the privately held company to complete two Phase IIb studies for its anemia drug, AKB-6548, and position the program for pivotal studies.
Millennium, of Cambridge Mass., has rescued the kinase inhibitor program in oncology at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc. after development partner Biogen Idec exited the oncology market last fall. Millennium, a unit of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, inked a licensing agreement that covers the development of Sunesis' oral, Phase I-ready selective pan-Raf kinase inhibitor and an additional preclinical kinase inhibitor program with an undisclosed oncology target.
Development partners Biogen Idec and privately held Knopp Biosciences LLC have enrolled the first patient in EMPOWER, a multinational Phase III study evaluating the efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics of the drug candidate dexpramipexole (KNS-760704) in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease and motor neuron disease.
In yet another sign that the biotech industry seems to be tracking the U.S. economy's slow but steady recovery, Insys Therapeutics Inc., of Phoenix, filed with the SEC on Wednesday to raise up to $55 million in an initial public offering (IPO).
Privately held ImmusanT Inc. has become the newest entrant in the wide-open race to find a drug therapy for the inherited autoimmune disorder celiac disease. The company established operations this month in Cambridge, Mass., with the goal of developing an immunotherapeutic vaccine, companion diagnostic and monitoring tool for celiac disease, which is triggered by foods containing gluten – the main protein in wheat, rye and barley.
Extending a partnership that dates back to 1999, Genfit, of Lille, France, has inked an agreement with Sanofi-Aventis SA, of Paris, to pursue therapies for the treatment of metabolic disorders. (BioWorld International)
Extending a partnership that dates back to 1999, Genfit, of Lille, France, has inked an agreement with Sanofi-Aventis SA, of Paris, to pursue therapies for the treatment of metabolic disorders.
