Merck & Co. Inc. turned to a small Israeli biotech, Ccam Biotherapeutics Ltd., to pad its immuno-oncology (I-O) pipeline with a next-generation monoclonal antibody (MAb) targeting the immune checkpoint protein known as carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1, or CEACAM1.
Messy. Lackluster. Weak. Those descriptions are rarely ascribed to earnings from Biogen Inc., but shares (NASDAQ:BIIB) of the Cambridge, Mass.-based company took a humbling blow after analysts hurled those adjectives, and more, at the company's second quarter report.
Investors propelled shares of Cara Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CARA) to a one-year high Thursday after the company reported top-line results from the phase II trial of lead kappa opioid agonist CR845, which hit its primary endpoint in treating moderate to severe uremic pruritus (UP).
Patients, investors and analysts seeking irrefutable evidence of progress in curing or mitigating the effects of Alzheimer's disease (AD) were likely disappointed when a flurry of trial results and data analyses presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) in Washington suggested steps forward, but still no breakthroughs on the horizon.
Dauntless Pharmaceuticals Inc. had a smooth initial take-off, fueled by a $12 million series A supporting a single asset, and that's just the way the San Diego-based company and backer Sofinnova Ventures plan to keep rolling off the runway.
Fibrocell Science Inc. and Intrexon Corp. took their partnership to the next level with the submission of an investigational new drug (IND) application with the FDA for FCX-007, a gene-therapy drug candidate to treat the orphan condition recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, or RDEB.
Astrazeneca plc spinout Entasis Therapeutics Inc. has come in from the cold with a portfolio of drugs that previously resided in the pharma's anti-infectives pipeline and a fistful of cash from its erstwhile parent.
Biotechs are still flying through the IPO window, albeit in slightly smaller numbers than a year ago. Through June, 31 IPOs generated $2.95 billion, approximately $300 million more than was raised in the first half of last year. (See BioWorld Insight, July 6, 2015.)
Acknowledging that its newly selected partner isn't exactly a household name, Amit Munshi, president and CEO of Epirus Biopharmaceuticals Inc., nevertheless expressed full confidence in Poland's Polpharma Group in a profit-sharing collaboration designed to commercialize biosimilars developed by Epirus across a broad swath of territories.
