Analysts mulled what the approval in the European Union (EU) of Amgen Inc.'s cholesterol drug Repatha (evolocumab) might mean for the compound's fate in the U.S., and for same-class competitor Praluent (alirocumab) from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Sanofi SA in both regions.
Cellceutix Inc.'s chief medical officer Daniel Jorgenson told BioWorld Today that "momentum was growing" with brilacidin against acute bacterial skin and skin structure infection (ABSSSI) at Polymedix Inc. before the firm went bankrupt in 2013 and sold off its assets.
When CEO Michael Pearson of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. said in April that "the Middle East and North Africa [together] is going to be a great market," he might have been predicting his firm's $800 million takeover of Amoun Pharmaceutical Co. S.A.E., Egypt's biggest pharma firm, with a powerful presence in the region.
Pronai Therapeutics Inc.'s DNA interference (DNAi) technology charmed Wall Street enough to let the company pull off a $137.7 million IPO and end the day with newly traded shares (NASDAQ:DNAI) selling for $30.80, up $13.80, or 81.2 percent.
With the first anti-interleukin (IL)-33 antibody to be reported functional in its lineup and another targeting IL-36 headed for human trials next year, Anaptysbio Inc. reaped $40 million in series D cash to advance the candidates through phase II trials.
Nanocell firm Engeneic Ltd. started using cancer immunotherapy in its unique way "before anyone else, because we have bacterially derived particles," Managing Director Jennifer MacDiarmid told BioWorld Today.
As the company reaps $180 million in a stock sale to advance its handful of phase I and phase II candidates, success by competitors with anti-myostatin therapies could bode well for Atara Biotherapeutics Inc.’s proof-of-concept phase II with Pinta 745.
Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc. CEO David Main told investors during a conference call that it was "impossible to know the right answer" to the question of why the phase II trial called Flagship with AQX-1125 failed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but he noted the very sick patients enrolled had "lots of exacerbations" and "lots of symptoms."
Afferent Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s $55 million in series C money gives the firm enough to pay for work that includes the potential phase III trial with AF-219 in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) cough, enabling the firm to "drive this one home ourselves," CEO Kathleen Glaub told BioWorld Today.
Another hostile takeover bid in the industry – this time by Horizon Pharma plc to grab Depomed Inc. for $29.25 per share in an all-stock, tax-free deal – set Wall Street buzzing, as Horizon offered a 42 percent premium over Monday's closing price of Depomed to make a deal valued at about $3 billion.
