SAN FRANCISCO - Remember leptin? The once-ballyhooed hormone and its receptor technology that Amgen Inc. licensed from Progenitor Inc. way back in 1997 had gained the limelight as a potential obesity cure two years earlier. (BioWorld Financial Watch)
About seven months after completing its $25 million buyout of Cyclis Pharmaceuticals Inc., ArQule Inc. has leveraged the acquired Activated Checkpoint Therapy technology to nail down a deal with Roche that could be worth up to $276 million, plus royalties. (BioWorld Today)
With their deal for respiratory diseases already having reached Phase II trials, Theravance Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline plc said they are broadening their relationship to the tune of $129 million, of which a "significant" portion involves GSK upping its ownership of Theravance from 6 percent to 19 percent - and GSK could end up with as much as 60 percent in 2007. (BioWorld Today)
