With $112.5 million in hand from the sale of its wet, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) therapy Visudyne, QLT Inc. faced questions regarding payouts to shareholders and the fate of the company's oral retinoid program.
TopoTarget A/S' positive results from the BELIEF pivotal trial with belinostat could mean upside for U.S. partner Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., if the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor is approved for peripheral T-cell lymphoma, but the latest outcome with belinostat is "not really a game changer for this drug," said Decision Resources analyst Lisa Murch.
Foundation Medicine Inc.'s $42.5 million in a Series B financing will let the company broaden use of its marketed genetic test for mutations key to cancer therapies and, next year, expand marketing from solid tumors to hematological disease.
Onconova Therapeutics Inc.'s deal with Baxter International Inc. for European rights to rigosertib for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and pancreatic cancer, worth up to $565 million, tops off a string of agreements over the past few years that leaves the company with full U.S. ownership of the late-stage compound.
Data sifted from the subset of an otherwise-failed Phase IIb trial helped Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc. persuade the FDA to bless the planned Phase III lupus program envisioned with blisibimod, a peptibody that targets high levels of B-cell activating factor (BAFF).
Ambit Biosciences Corp.'s potential $390 million deal with Astellas Pharma Inc. for FLT3 kinase inhibitors adds power to the push with oral small-molecule AC220, which just entered Phase II trials of the compound against acute myeloid leukemia in a patient subset that comprises about one-third of the newly diagnosed. (BioWorld Today)
"Change of control." It's one of those legal phrases in a contract that, when brought into play, can strike terror or joy into the heart of one side of a partnership or another who might have more casually agreed years earlier. The concept could take center stage for BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. in the firm's deal with Genzyme Corp. if Sanofi-Aventis SA goes ahead with a persistent bid to take over Cambridge, Mass.-based Genzyme Corp. – a bid that speculators predicted could turn hostile.
Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s surprising good fortune with the FDA's nod last week for the company's generic Lovenox sent shares skyrocketing 82 percent and capped five years of exchanges between the regulatory agency and Momenta with partner Sandoz, the generic unit of Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis AG. It also may have sent an ominous signal to Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc.
