After years of throwing themselves futilely against the beta amyloid wall, companies trying for Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapies are turning away, hoping to find a door that opens on a way to modify the devastating condition.
Riding the wave of success at last for gene therapy, privately held Applied Genetic Technologies Corp. (AGTC) bagged $37.5 million in a Series B financing that will let the company finish two Phase II trials with separate drug candidates, and see the firm through a pair of new, Phase I/II studies with other compounds in orphan eye diseases.
Privately held Intarcia Therapeutics Inc.'s subcutaneous, osmotic-pump method of delivering the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist exenatide will enter Phase III trials in the first quarter of next year, thanks to a whopping $210 million in new cash, gained through a pair of investments.
The Toll-like receptor (TLR) 9 agonist used as an adjuvant in Dynavax Technologies Corp.'s Heplisav doomed the hepatitis B vaccine at an FDA advisory panel meeting, where members said knowledge of the drug's effects is neither broad nor diverse enough.
The recent approval of Pfizer Inc.'s Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor tofacitinib, branded Xeljanz, for moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has investors salivating over the prospects for baricitinib, the drug in the same class for the same indication from Incyte Corp. and partner Eli Lilly and Co., entering Phase III trials.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s eleventh-hour settlement with Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. leaves Alnylam $65 million lighter but still in strong financial shape, without losing rights to access the Lipid NanoParticle (LNP) delivery technology important for its RNAi work.
Poised to wade into a crowded field of drugs for hereditary angioedema (HAE), Santarus Inc. and partner Pharming Group NV said last week the pivotal Phase III study with the C1 esterase inhibitor Ruconest for acute HAE attacks met the primary endpoint of time to beginning of symptom relief.
Top-line data from a Phase III trial with Abraxane plus gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer by Celgene Corp.'s subsidiary Celgene International Sàrl suggested a benefit over the chemotherapy agent alone in overall survival (OS).
It wasn't the first time that a deal by GlaxoSmithKline plc left Wall Street unsatisfied and ultimately fizzled, but the severing of XenoPort's tie with the pharma giant leaves the biotech in fairly good shape: full rights to Horizant (gabapentin enacarbil) and $20 million in new equity money.
