In the biopharma space, finding potential new uses for shelved drugs has become a business model unto itself, with proponents touting successes such as AZT – a drug that bombed in cancer trials only to return two decades later as the first approved therapy for HIV – and the National Institutes of Health even endorsing the strategy, setting up the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences as a matchmaker to hook up researchers with failed compounds in 2012.
Rather than seeking a new partner after a worldwide licensing deal with Roche AG quietly terminated last year, privately held Chiasma Inc. decided to take its new drug application (NDA)-ready oral octreotide to market in the U.S. on its own.
A competitive partnering process for a preclinical-stage asset gave way to broader negotiations that brought together former Amgen Inc. colleagues and resulted in a deal that could accelerate the growth of low-flying biotech NGM Biopharmaceuticals Inc. beyond its early work in cardio-metabolic diseases.
NEW YORK – The Biotechnology Industry Organization's (BIO) first-ever venture capital study, which analyzed U.S. venture investments during a 10-year period – 2004 to 2013 – turned up several positive trends such as the increasing shift toward biologics and novel drug development, but there was one set of data that gave investors pause. (See BioWorld Today, Feb. 10, 2015.)
NEW YORK – The 17th annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference wrapped up, with the Biotechnology Industry Organization reporting more than 2,220 partnering meetings over the two-day event and a session schedule that hit all the big topics as industry experts offered up insight and lessons learned.
NEW YORK – "It's probably not an exaggeration to say there's a lot of hype" surrounding the microbiome space, noted Mark Breidenbach, of H.C. Wainwright & Co., who moderated a panel on the subject at the annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference.
NEW YORK – If the current trend in venture investment is a harbinger of what's to come, then it's good news for firms developing biologics, according to a report released today by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) that highlighted positive – and some negative – funding trends that have emerged in the last decade.
NEW YORK – The banner year for biopharma M&A that characterized 2014 – a total of 364 deals for a whopping value of $215 billion – is unlikely to be repeated, at least in terms of value, but the rate of dealmaking is expected to continue, especially as data roll out for hot indications such as immuno-oncology.
Backed by positive data from two phase III studies, ABP 501 could become the first product from Amgen Inc.'s burgeoning yet close-to-the-vest biosimilars program, for which the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based firm has anticipated five commercial launches between 2017 and 2019.
As widely expected, Pfizer Inc.'s cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor palbociclib won a much-anticipated accelerated approval, with an FDA nod for use in advanced or metastatic breast cancer coming late Tuesday afternoon.
