A year after its founding, Alpine Immune Sciences Inc. (AIS) sped to a $48 million series A round that was led by Orbimed Advisors and joined by Frazier Healthcare Partners and Alpine Bioventures. In January 2015, Alpine Bio founded and provided the seed funding for Seattle-based AIS, which is developing protein-based immunotherapies using its variant immunoglobulin domain, or vIgD, platform technology, to interact simultaneously with multiple targets in the immune synapse using a single molecule.
Panelists at Allicense 2016, held this year in conjunction with the 2016 BIO International Convention, made clear that the debate over drug cost valuation that escalated last year continues to rage.
Following a record-breaking year for deal-makers, 2016 isn't exactly off to the races. The drug pricing debate, magnified through the lens of a contentious Presidential campaign, and mounting pressure on the industry's blue chips to improve performance in the midst of a volatile stock market have placed heavy demands on partnering activity. In a super session on the final day of the BIO International Convention, a panel of veteran deal-makers debated whether big biopharmas will take a wait-and-see approach or throw caution to the wind and forge ahead with partnering and M&A.
In a brief statement released following Monday's market close, Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. revealed that the FDA requested additional dystrophin data as part of its ongoing review of the new drug application (NDA) for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) candidate, eteplirsen. According to Sarepta, the agency said the dystrophin data, as measured by Western blot, could be acquired from biopsies already obtained from PROMOVI, the ongoing confirmatory study of eteplirsen.
SAN FRANCISCO – In a presentation during the opening day of the BIO International Convention, industry veteran Dave Thomas, senior director of industry research for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), took a deeper dive into findings from two recent industry reports that he co-authored.
SAN FRANCISCO – The crossover party is all but over. Pure public players have moved upstream. Companies that went public as recently as 2014 are going belly-up. And a hyperbolic presidential election campaign has turned the industry's life-saving mission into a source of public controversy.
Clearside Biomedical Inc. priced low but increased the shares in its IPO to take off about where it expected. The company offered 7.2 million common shares priced at $7 apiece to raise $50.4 million and granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1.08 million additional shares to fill overallotments, potentially adding $7.56 million to the raise.
We’re still a few weeks away from the summer solstice, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, but with BIO around the corner that trip to San Francisco justifies a good read. Whether you’re in the mood for the story of a scientist coming of age or of a world leader seeking to thwart the Axis powers, a street child’s search for his father or a neurologist’s look at psychosomatic illness, BioWorld’s Summer Reading List – our 10th annual – is certain to have something to pique your interest. We culled the top suggestions from our writers and readers, in some...
Another billion-dollar-plus deal failed to play out as planned as the FDA dealt Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. a complete response letter on its new drug application for SD-809 to treat chorea – involuntary writhing movements – associated with Huntington disease.
