After seeding gene therapy start-up Avrobio Inc. earlier this year, Atlas Venture stepped back up to the plate, joined by Clarus and SV Life Sciences, to fund the company’s $25 million series A. The round will accelerate development of Avrobio’s initial programs in Fabry disease and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), both expected to enter the clinic this year, and allow the company to expand its pipeline in rare diseases and solid and liquid cancers.
Bamboo is the largest and one of the fastest growing members of the grass family, with individual shoots reaching their full height in a single growing season. In an apt metaphor, Pfizer Inc. made quick work of privately held Bamboo Therapeutics Inc., paying $150 million up front and committing to milestone payments of up to $495 million just months after investing $43 million for a 22 percent equity stake in the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based company.
Second-quarter earnings season wrapped up for big pharma with a sales miss by Sanofi SA as it sought to modify its tactical pursuit of Medivation Inc., which reports its financial results after the market close on Aug. 9.
The big data revolution is all around us, from politics to power plants, manufacturing to multimedia content, Wall street to Main Street. Small wonder that big data also is driving radical change in health care and therapeutic development.
Interim results from the open-label phase I/II study of BMN 270, Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc.’s gene therapy to treat severe hemophilia A, showed the candidate outperformed expectations both in terms of efficacy, as measured by factor VIII (fVIII) expression and clinical improvements.
Disappointing second-quarter earnings at Gilead Sciences Inc. forced shares (NASDAQ:GILD) down 8.5 percent Tuesday, closing at $81.05 for a loss of $7.50, and led to a chorus of calls for the company to pull the trigger on a big deal.
Tricida Inc. raised a $55 million series C to support continued development of its chronic kidney disease (CKD) compound, TRC101. The round propelled the South San Francisco-based biopharma to $95 million in funding since its founding in 2014 and positioned it to complete a phase I/II proof-of-concept study for TRC101 and prepare for a type B meeting with the FDA this year.
Biogen Inc. reported solid second-quarter financial results, including revenues of $2.9 billion – a 12 percent increase compared to the same period in 2015. The bigger news – at least to those outside its Cambridge, Mass., headquarters – was the revelation by CEO George Scangos at the outset of the company's earnings call that he will leave the company "sometime within the next few months," following "an orderly transition," to return to the West Coast, spend more time with family and "take on one more set of activities."
Zafgen Inc. scrapped plans to develop its lead candidate, beloranib, after deciding the road forward would be too long and costly, based on FDA feedback, following two patient deaths in its phase III bestPWS trial in Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS).
In a solid win for Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., the FDA's Dermatologic and Ophthalmic Drugs Advisory Committee (DODAC) voted 18-0 in favor of approving the biologics license application (BLA) for brodalumab, branded Siliq, to treat adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.
