As soon as Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. unveiled strongly positive data from the NAPOLI-1 phase III trial with MM-398 in metastatic pancreatic cancer patients previously treated with gemcitabine, investors began to mull the chances for the drug – a nanoliposomal encapsulation of the chemotherapy agent irinotecan – in first-line disease.
After drawing $45.9 million in a series C financing round last September, Otonomy Inc. put another $49 million into the coffers by way of an oversubscribed series D round, which will let the San Diego-based firm advance its products for ear conditions "well into the second half of 2015," said CEO David Weber.
A rejiggered phase III Fabry disease trial with migalastat, the oral small-molecule chaperone for alpha-galactosidase A, did the trick for Amicus Therapeutics Inc., which reported favorable data in patients with the amenable mutations using the drug as a monotherapy.
The timing of Forest Laboratories Inc.'s takeover of Furiex Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $95 per share, or about $1.1 billion in cash, and up to $30 per share – about $360 million – in a contingent value right (CVR) should not affect Forest's pending merger with Actavis plc, CEO Brent Saunders said.
The phase IIb failure of tirasemtiv in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) jolted Wall Street, though some analysts had been wary from the start about the chances for the fast skeletal muscle troponin activator.
Analysts had plenty of questions but few data-driven answers about Celgene Corp.'s decision to pay $710 million up front to privately held Nogra Pharma Ltd. to develop and commercialize GED-0301, a phase III-ready, oral antisense DNA oligonucleotide targeting Smad7 mRNA for the treatment of moderate to severe Crohn's disease (CD) and other indications.
Neos Therapeutics Inc.'s upsized series C financing – from $15.5 million to $18 million – along with a $20 million loan facility with Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc. means the firm will "not only have enough money to hit the key regulatory milestones over the next 12-15 months, but to give us financial flexibility into 2016," said Victor Miller, vice president of finance.
As Tuesday wore on, skepticism gave way regarding success for the hostile try by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., with help from the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management L.P., to take over Allergan Inc. in a deal valued at about $45 billion. But the merger is by no means a deal.
Breaking the silence that has prevailed since last November on the upshot of ongoing talks with the FDA regarding eteplirsen, Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. said the FDA's once-dim view of data with the exon-skipping candidate for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) has changed.
