No longer left to its own devices in putting Afrezza inhaled insulin on the market, Exubera-haunted Mannkind Corp. landed an eagerly awaited commercialization deal with Sanofi SA that brings $150 million up front and as much as $775 million in regulatory, development and sales milestone payments for the second-generation product.
With a multi-cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) small-molecule inhibitor working its way toward phase III trials next year in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), Tolero Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $14.2 million in series B money that will also help advance the Salt Lake City-based firm's significant preclinical pipeline.
The outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa and the experimental treatment of two afflicted Americans at Emory University Hospital have brought to the fore ethical questions regarding the wise use of previously untried therapies, as well as a debate about the patients who should get them.
Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co. stand as the only developers of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) blockers that have generated human efficacy data in migraine patients, but Amgen Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd. are courting similar phase II success in the clinic.
Juno Therapeutics Inc.'s origins in three of the country's top oncology centers apparently has done plenty to help financing options for the Seattle-based firm, which added $134 million in series B cash to boost its chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T-cell receptor (TCR) pipeline. In less than 12 months, the Seattle-based company has raised more than $300 million.
Investor jitters about cardiac side effects were quelled and full approval chances bolstered by interim phase III data from Amgen Inc.'s trial testing the second-generation proteasome inhibitor Kyprolis (carfilzomib) when combined with Revlimid (lenalidomide, Celgene Corp.) and low-dose dexamethasone against relapsed multiple myeloma (MM).
With an inhibitor of the Trk family of receptor tyrosine kinases in phase I, Loxo Oncology Inc. priced an upsized initial public offering (IPO) of about 5.2 million shares at $13 each, raising about $67.6 million for an effort to come up with a best-in-class compound.
In the race with Amgen Inc. to market a proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitor for high cholesterol, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. played catch-up by buying a priority review voucher (PRV) for $67.5 million from Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc., splitting the cost with alirocumab partner Sanofi SA.
With partner Sanofi SA, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. opened investors' eyes wider by making public the positive outcomes of nine phase III trials with alirocumab, a proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitor, in hypocholesterolemia.
Kalobios Pharmaceuticals Inc. asked for and got back the rights to KB001-A from Sanofi Pasteur, under terms that at least one analyst deemed "attractive" – especially given that the pharma partner was hardly moving the antibody along at a brisk pace.
