Gearing up for potential commercialization of its lead program, ofatumumab, in chronic lymphocytic leukemia next year - and taking into account the current economic environment - Danish antibody firm Genmab A/S is cutting roughly 15 percent of its work force and halting work on a Phase III program in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. (BioWorld Today)
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. officially emerged Monday as the $70-per-share bidder for ImClone Systems Inc., affirming last week's speculation on the Street, as it aims to pick up a pipeline that includes marketed EGFR inhibitor Erbitux and three late-stage oncology programs. (BioWorld Today)
Privately held Deciphera Pharmaceuticals LLC signed its first big pharma deal, licensing rights to four preclinical B-Raf kinase inhibitors to Eli Lilly and Co. for the development of oncology drugs. (BioWorld Today)
With two blockbuster products set to lose patent protection in the next two to three years, Eli Lilly and Co. certainly seems like a firm that would be willing to pay $70 per share - about $6.1 billion - to acquire ImClone Systems Inc., though the big pharma firm has neither confirmed nor denied that it is the unnamed bidder that topped Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s offer earlier this year. (BioWorld Today)
Advanced Life Sciences Holdings Inc. had Wednesday what Chairman and CEO Michael Flavin called "a great day," with the submission of its regulatory application for antibiotic cethromycin in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), a potential $100 million-plus Asia-Pacific partnership deal with Wyeth and a couple of financing agreements to bolster its cash position. (BioWorld Today)
In its second major corporate collaboration since its 2005 founding in Bangalore, India, Advinus Therapeutics Ltd. agreed to work with Johnson & Johnson unit Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a deal that could bring the young firm as much as $247 million in potential milestones. (BioWorld Today)
Clinical Data Inc., which last month pumped up its development pipeline with the acquisition of Adenosine Therapeutics LLC, pulled in $25 million through a private placement to support general working capital purposes. (BioWorld Today)
