Shares of Newlink Genetics Corp. were dented 12.4 percent on Monday after the company reported a failed phase II experiment with lead program indoximod, in combination with taxane chemotherapy, for patients with metastatic breast cancer, based on top-line data.
Still in the early days of June and weeks away from the northern hemisphere's summer solstice, the climate for financings is heating up in the U.S. Three biopharmas – Mersana Therapeutics Inc., Aileron Therapeutics Inc. and Dova Pharmaceuticals Inc. – have filed for U.S. IPOs since the start of the month. A fourth, Athenex Inc., filed May 12 and set terms last week.
With positive news flow on clinical development, Array Biopharma Inc. stayed busy on the partnering front, selecting Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to license, develop and commercialize its late-stage oncology compounds, binimetinib and encorafenib, in Japan and South Korea. Array is set to receive $31.6 million (¥3.5 billion) up front and is entitled to another $156 million (¥17.3 billion) in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments.
Although halting one clinical program, modifying another and axing 40 percent of its staff wasn't exactly the way Endocyte Inc. hoped to make its entrance at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago, those were precisely the steps the company took to "put patients first," according to CEO Mike Sherman. The company's reduction in force and termination of programs for EC-1456 and EC-1169 in taxane-naïve patients affect the company's capacity to execute but not its capabilities, Sherman told BioWorld Today.
On the eve of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago, Deciphera Pharmaceuticals LLC disclosed a $52 million series C financing to advance lead candidates DCC-2618 and DCC-3014 beyond phase I.
BioWorld’s inaugural Summer Reading List in 2007 appeared as a simple list of 15 books – including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, harkening to the tone of the times – designed as something a breather from post-ASCO, pre-BIO mania. Ten years later, our Summer Reading List is one of the most widely read pieces of the year, providing heartening evidence that no matter what divides biopharma, individuals across the industry – executives, scientists, investors, analysts – and the folks who report on their business successes and failures are united by enjoyment of a good read. Here are this year’s...
With positive news flow on clinical development, Array Biopharma Inc. stayed busy on the partnering front, selecting Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to license, develop and commercialize its late-stage oncology compounds, binimetinib and encorafenib, in Japan and South Korea.
Reporting top-line data from the first phase IIa segment of its ACHIEVE study of SB-9200 in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV), Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals Inc. suggested its lead candidate more than met its mark, showing strong safety and evidence of efficacy at week 12 compared to placebo, dosed as monotherapy at just 25 mg daily.
Encouraged but still cautious, Dan Teleman, CEO of Atox Bio Ltd., was careful not to raise expectations about the eventual outcome of the ongoing phase III ACCUTE (AB-103 Clinical Composite endpoint StUdy in necrotizing soft Tissue InfEctions), which is evaluating reltecimod (previously AB-103) in patients with necrotizing soft tissue infections (NSTIs), or so-called "flesh-eating" bacteria.
Eighteen months after picking up Dyax Corp. for $5.9 billion in cash, Shire plc appears to have a winner with lanadelumab, originally known as DX-2930. The plasma kallikrein inhibitor, which Shire first designated as SHP-643, met its primary and secondary endpoints with highly statistical significance, compared to placebo, in the phase III HELP study in patients 12 and older with hereditary angioedema (HAE).
