Thanksgiving doorbusters. Check. Black Friday blowouts. Check. Small business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday. Check, check, check. It's only Dec. 1, with the major holidays some two weeks or more ahead, and major advertisers would have us believe we’re already shopped out. But the intrepid elves at BioWorld, along with some loyal readers and followers, have lined up fun selections for everyone on your list with our 11th annual Holiday Gift Guide. Heidi Chokeir, managing director at Canale Communications Inc., called the Foldscope kit “an AMAZING gift for the budding scientist in people’s lives.” Larger kits are already sold out...
Codiak Biosciences Inc. closed a $76.5 million series C, extending its runway in a big way following a combined series A/B that hit $92 million. Initial investors, including Arch Venture Partners, Flagship Pioneering, Fidelity Management and Research Co., the Alaska Permanent Fund and Alexandria Venture Investments, participated in the C round, joined by new investors that included Qatar Investment Authority, Boxer Capital of the Tavistock Group, Sirona Capital, Ecor1 Capital and Casdin Capital.
Axel Bolte's background in venture financing served him well when it came time to set up shop at Inozyme Pharma Inc. But his deep ties to academia were even more important to the company's formation. Entrée to technology discovered at Yale University could enable Inozyme to offer a distinctly new approach to treat rare calcification disorders.
"'Outpost' connotes a small force out on the frontier," Scott Byrd, newly named president and CEO of Outpost Medicine LLC, explained. It's a moniker the company takes seriously.
More than three months ahead of its Feb. 23, 2018, PDUFA date, Hemlibra (emicizumab-kxwh), a bispecific monoclonal antibody that brings together factors IXa and X to mimic the role of factor VIII (FVIII) and restore blood clotting, was green-lighted by the FDA to prevent or reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes in adults and children with hemophilia A who develop FVIII inhibitors.
A day ahead of its PDUFA date, Mepsevii (vestronidase alfa-vjbk, previously UX-003) won FDA approval to treat children and adults with the ultra rare inherited metabolic condition mucopolysaccharidosis type VII (MPS VII), also known as Sly syndrome. The nod gave developer Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. its first commercial product and represented a first approval in the indication.
Torque Therapeutics Inc. emerged from the deep, disclosing a series A by Flagship Pioneering that was opened in conjunction with its founding in 2015 and, with a second tranche pulled down in August, amounts to $25 million.
Zymeworks Inc. nailed down its sixth strategic partnership, luring Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen Biotech Inc. to a potential $1.45 billion global license to research, develop and commercialize up to six bispecific antibodies directed to Janssen therapeutic targets using Zymeworks' Azymetric and EFECT (Effector Function Enhancement and Control Technology) platforms.
Entera Bio Ltd., established in June 2010 as a joint venture of fellow Israeli firms DNA Biomedical Solutions and Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc., is seeking to raise up to $50 million, including overallotments, in an IPO, with a listing on Nasdaq under the ticker ENTX. The Jerusalem-based firm is developing oral formulations of teriparatide (parathyroid hormone, or PTH, 1-34) to treat hypoparathyroidism (EB-612) and osteoporosis (EB-613). Oppenheimer & Co. is the sole bookrunner on the deal, which was not priced.
