The explosive growth of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is well-known, as are the reasons for its alarming prevalence. T2D now touches every age cohort and nearly every culture in every corner of the world, driving corresponding increases in complications such as stroke, blindness, kidney disease and skin ulcers, with debilitating or deadly results.
That effort by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. to get a toehold in the potentially lucrative respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) market with a candidate that had FDA fast track status? It's kaput, after the Tarrytown, N.Y.-based company said the phase III study of suptavumab (previously REGN-2222) missed the primary endpoint of preventing medically attended RSV infections in infants.
Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc. extended its string of financings with a $60 million series E preferred stock round led by Sectoral Asset Management that included new investors Sofinnova, Vivo Capital, F-Prime Capital Partners, investment funds advised by Clough Capital Partners LP and Venbio Select. Existing investors Morningside Ventures, Cormorant Asset Management, Venbio Global Strategic Fund and Epidarex Capital also participated in the financing.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) gained new attention in the months following the FDA's approval of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp.'s Radicava (edaravone). After three years of research, upstart Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. seized that opening to move headlong into the field.
Top-line findings from Fibrogen Inc.'s phase II study and two combination safety substudies of pamrevlumab (previously FG-3019) in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) boosted the company's partnering prospects and propelled its shares (NASDAQ:FGEN) to a historic high.
For decades, the biopharma industry has struggled to develop "game-changing" therapies in heart failure, according to Tassos Gianakakos, CEO of Myokardia Inc.
Two-year-old IFM Therapeutics Inc. became the latest biopharma unicorn, as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) picked up the Boston-based company for $300 million up front and another $1.01 billion in potential development, regulatory and sales milestones for each of the first products from the deal's two oncology programs. IFM is eligible for more contingent milestone payments for additional products that emerge from the programs.
The cannabinoid story is hardly new to biopharma. The first cannabinoid therapeutics were approved roughly two decades ago, but only four drugs targeting the brain's cannabinoid receptors have made it to market, targeting narrow indications associated with cancer, neuropathic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) or cachexia.
