According to data from Deloitte Recap LLC, there were 11 deals terminated in the first quarter of 2013, a number that is on pace to blow through the 30 terminated deals last year and the 31 terminations the year before.
Galena Biopharma Inc. has a bit of a wait ahead of it. The biotech initiated a Phase III trial testing NeuVax (nelipepimut-S) as an adjuvant breast cancer treatment at the beginning of 2012.
Successfully developing drugs is the ultimate goal of pharmaceutical companies, but the downside is that the pipeline requires constant replenishing. The early stage drought was made worse by the merger of large pharmaceutical companies; as the pipelines came together, the later-stage compound usually got priority when there was redundancy.
Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc. recently launched Nexafed, its version of pseudoephedrine that uses the biotech's abuse-deterrent technology to help disrupt the drug's conversion to methamphetamine. Acura is focusing its marketing message for the over-the-counter decongestant on pharmacists.
SAN DIEGO – The life science industry has experienced three windows of opportunity to go public in the past 15 years. The first window lasted just three years from 1998 to 2000, producing 50 initial public offerings (IPOs). The second included a whopping 92 IPOs, running from mid-2003 to 2007. The most recent window, which officially started in mid-2009, has produced only 38 IPOs despite being longer than the first and approaching the length of the second.
SAN DIEGO – In a session at the third annual Global Life Science Partnering Conference put on by Southern California life sciences industry organization BIOCOM, representatives from large pharmaceutical companies offered insights for biotechs looking to partner.
After seeing its clinical program stall following the failure of a Phase IIb trial testing NTx-265 in acute stroke, Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. is reinventing itself. (See BioWorld Today, May 26, 2010.)
Pexa-Vec (JX-594), developed by San Francisco-based Jennerex Inc., is a triple cancer killer. A publication in Cancer Research confirms anti-angiogenesis is part of Pexa-Vec's mechanism of action to attack tumors.
During the past 10 years, overall outsourcing has grown 13.3 percent per year, outpacing a 9 percent annual growth of total R&D spending. In Europe, Frost & Sullivan estimates the contract research organization (CRO) market will grow at an annual rate of 9.6 percent between 2011 and 2018.
The FDA approved 39 new drugs in 2012, the highest since 1996, so it should come as no surprise that regulatory affairs and clinical development experts are in high demand these days.
