As the curtain closed on the first quarter of the year, the report card performance numbers weren't pretty, as ongoing energy price ebbs and flows coupled with mixed domestic economic data kept the general markets on edge. As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat for the quarter and down 1.2 percent for the month of March. The Nasdaq Composite index did a little better, posting a 3.5 percent gain for the quarter but was down 0.5 percent in March.
Despite prevailing financial market turbulence during the first quarter of 2015, it did not impede the ability of biotechs to raise capital. The period was characterized by a tsunami of cash flooding into their coffers. Both global public and private companies benefited from investors' seemingly insatiable appetite for their offerings.
There is no doubt that the field of cancer immunotherapy is attracting a great deal of attention from investors and big pharma companies alike these days. With plenty of deals being racked up in this space, Berkeley, Calif.-based Aduro Biotech Inc. is the latest company to forge a major collaboration based on immuno-oncology research.
Among the goals of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium are to make possible the diagnosis of as many rare diseases as possible and to contribute to the development of 200 new rare disease treatments by 2020. To date, the consortium has recorded 142 medicines that contribute to the target. This number was certainly boosted by last year's FDA approval of 17 new drugs with rare or orphan disease indications.
Lpath Inc., a small biotech based in San Diego, saw its shares tumble in heavy trading following the release of news that its phase IIa single-agent, open-label study of Asonep, an anti-sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) antibody formulated for systemic administration, did not meet the primary endpoint of statistically significant progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).
In the fourth quarter of 2014 there were 30 public offering transactions generating approximately $6.4 billion, which was six times the amount raised through public offerings in the third quarter of 2014 from 17 deals.
Rare Disease Day, which takes place at the end of February, is designed to focus global attention on the need for therapies to treat patients suffering from devastating rare diseases that have, as yet, no effective treatments and limited research and funding to change the situation.
Fresh off its long and involved bidding quest to acquire Allergan Inc., which ultimately was unsuccessful, Canada's Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. looks like it has another fight on its hands with a new suitor swooping in with a substantially higher bid to acquire gastrointestinal specialist Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) estimates that cancers of the head and neck, a diverse group of tumors that arise in the mouth, nose, throat and larynx, account for about 3 percent of all malignancies in the U.S. Most are squamous cell carcinomas that begin in the flat, squamous cells that make up the epithelium of the head and neck.
Emerging companies are considered to be the drivers of U.S. economic activity, innovation and job creation. Their ability to survive and prosper depends on ready access to capital, particularly in the private markets. The SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies met to discuss ways in which the secondary trading environment for the securities of small businesses can be improved. It is an issue that needs to be solved quickly in view of a projected increase in those securities.
