Just before the holiday break, the FDA put an exclamation point on the number of new molecular entity (NMEs) approvals this year with two more medicines crossing the goal line. At the end of November, the count had ticked to 54 following the green light for Coral Gables, Fla.-based Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Firdapse (amifampridine phosphate), the first drug designated in the U.S. to treat adults with Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome. (See BioWorld, Nov. 30, 2018.)
It was a dramatic week on Wall Street spanning the Christmas holidays, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging dramatically and then recovering to post a record climb of more than 1,000 points in one day. Not surprisingly, biopharma company equities were taken for a wild ride during the dramatic drop and subsequent recovery in the general markets.
Just before the holiday break, the FDA put an exclamation point on the number of new molecular entity (NMEs) approvals this year with two more medicines crossing the goal line. At the end of November, the count had ticked to 54 following the green light for Coral Gables, Fla.-based Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Firdapse (amifampridine phosphate), the first drug designated in the U.S. to treat adults with Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome.
It was a dramatic week on Wall Street spanning the Christmas holidays, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging dramatically and then recovering to post a record climb of more than 1,000 points in one day. Not surprisingly, biopharma company equities were taken for a wild ride during the dramatic drop and subsequent recovery in the general markets.
The quote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," from the opening of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is certainly appropriate for the ups and downs that the biopharma sector has experienced during 2018, particularly in the public domain where significant equity gains in the first half of the year were erased in the wake of extremely turbulent general markets that saw investors head for the sidelines.
The quote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," from the opening of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is certainly appropriate for the ups and downs that the biopharma sector has experienced during 2018, particularly in the public domain where significant equity gains in the first half of the year were erased in the wake of extremely turbulent general markets that saw investors head for the sidelines.
It has been a record year as far as venture capital flowing into the sector is concerned. With the curtain about to close on 2018, about $16.5 billion has been raised globally.
Although developers of novel cancer therapeutics, particularly in the immuno-oncology area, have managed to attract the lion's share of investment funding and partnerships, that enthusiasm has not translated to the capital markets.
Although developers of novel cancer therapeutics, particularly in the immuno-oncology area, have managed to attract the lion's share of investment funding and partnerships, that enthusiasm has not translated to the capital markets. The American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting held earlier this month in San Diego, closely watched by analysts and investors alike, provided an opportunity for a number of public cancer-focused companies to present their latest clinical data.
Blue chip biopharma equities closed out the month of November on a high note with the BioWorld Biopharmaceutical index up almost 6 percent, which appeared to have helped erase the memories of a tough October that saw the index fall 10 percent in the wake of a general market correction.
