XOMA Ltd. is picking up about $35 million up front in a creatively structured ex-U.S. deal with French firm Les Laboratoires Servier, which gives the Berkeley, Calif.-based biotech the chance to retain long-term upside on interleukin-1 inhibitor XOMA 052, a drug that has generated significant buzz in early stage diabetes trials.
With Gilead Sciences Inc. halting work on Letairis (ambrisentan) in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) after a peek at Phase III data showed a lack of efficacy, InterMune Inc.'s pirfenidone remains the last late-stage player standing in IPF, a disease for which there are no approved drugs.
Corcept Therapeutics Inc. reported positive top-line data from its Phase III trial of Corlux (mifepristone), a cortisol receptor (GR-II) antagonist, in Cushing's syndrome, news that puts the Menlo Park, Calif.-based biotech on solid footing as it heads into ex-U.S. partnering talks.
Incyte Corp. set its sights on a second quarter 2011 new drug application filing for INCB18424 in myelofibrosis after the JAK1/2 inhibitor solidly hit the primary endpoint of reducing spleen size in patients in a Phase III trial.
Biotech veteran Jack Reich thought he had retired in 2002 after selling his cardiovascular gene therapy firm Collateral Therapeutics Inc. to Schering AG in a $140 million stock-for-stock deal, but further developments in the field brought him back to the executive fold, heading up 2008 start-up Renova Therapeutics Inc.
NewLink Genetics Corp. became the latest biotech to jump into the initial public offering (IPO) queue, with a filing that looks to raise as much as $86 million to help fund its ongoing Phase III study in pancreatic cancer.
Six months after adding a kinase program to its pipeline by acquiring CGI Pharmaceuticals Inc., Gilead Sciences Inc. picked up its first monoclonal antibody product in another early stage deal, buying out privately held Arresto Biosciences Inc. for $225 million in cash plus future milestones tied to sales.
Shares of InterMune Inc. shot up a whopping 144.5 percent Friday on a positive opinion by the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) drug pirfenidone, a decision that came about two months earlier than expected and positions the company for a European approval in early 2011.
Failed biotech Viragen Inc. might have called it quits in 2007, but its monoclonal antibody targeting CD55 was reborn in start-up Genesis Biopharma Inc., which licensed the CD55-related assets earlier this year and plans to move forward with testing in both solid tumors and blood cancers.
Though still a fairly new entrant to the metabolic disease space, courtesy of its July acquisition of DeveloGen AG, Evotec AG managed to ink an early stage partnership for a biologic beta cell regeneration program with AstraZeneca plc subsidiary MedImmune for up to €259 million (US$345.2 million).
