Three months after reporting positive top-line data from its Phase III study of oral calcitonin in postmenopausal osteoporosis patients, Tarsa Therapeutics Inc. disclosed a $24.5 million financing round that should get the Philadelphia-based firm through a new drug application (NDA) filing later this year.
During the recent BIO International Convention in Washington, panelists in a business development session discussed whether biotech firms can count on scoring major dollars by licensing early stage – preclinical or Phase I – programs. (BioWorld International)
The good news is that Lemtrada (alemtuzumab), the hotly contested drug at the center of negotiations in Sanofi SA's buyout of Genzyme Corp. earlier this year, hit its primary endpoint in the first Phase III study in multiple sclerosis (MS).
During last week's BIO International Convention in Washington, panelists in a business development session discussed whether biotech firms can count on scoring major dollars by licensing early stage – preclinical or Phase I – programs.
Amid the flood of data reported at last month's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, small biotech CDG Therapeutics Inc. emerged from a decade of stealth with the first clinical data for its p28 peptide program.
WASHINGTON – Brent Ahrens, general partner at venture capital (VC) firm Canaan Partners, arrived at the 2011 BIO International Convention Tuesday in a pretty good mood: Canaan's portfolio firm Advanced BioHealing Inc. had just closed its $750 million acquisition by Shire plc.
This year marked my fifth BIO International Convention since joining the BioWorld team. I love the BIO meeting. It’s a great way to learn about new trends in the industry, discover potential sources for future BioWorld stories and finally put a lot of faces to names of people I’ve only talked to over the phone. Plus, the parties are fun. But it is a completely crazy schedule. And every year, I’ve found myself moving from different levels of alertness and exhaustion over the four-day period, though I admit a lot of is my own...
WASHINGTON – A finance panel Tuesday afternoon on the evolution of the venture capital model in biotech turned briefly toward the rise of corporate venturing, a trend that has helped keep money flowing into private firms even in the economic downturn, though traditional VCs warn that those investments might come with a different set of strings attached.
WASHINGTON – As the financing track kicked off with its first BIO2011 session in a crowded room at the Walter E. Washington conference center, the focus was on how to access National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants and other funding sources to get early stage research across the so-called Valley of Death.
WASHINGTON – For drug development firms trying to save money or playing catch-up in a highly competitive field, it might seem a good idea to skimp on Phase II testing by enrolling fewer patients, conducting only one midstage study or even leapfrogging straight to Phase III and hoping that the efficacy signal observed in Phase I wasn't just a fluke.
