Back in 2012, Sutro Biopharma Inc.'s chief scientific officer, Trevor Hallam, said a potential $500 million pact offered new partner Celgene Corp. "a way of kicking our tires," to see whether Sutro's cell-free protein expression capabilities were as promising as they sounded.
About four years in the making, Monday's reveal of disappointing top-line data from the phase III study testing vosaroxin plus cytarabine in patients with relapsed refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) sent shares of Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc. tumbling in spectacular fashion.
RIO DE JANEIRO – I was in college when I first read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. Safe within the privileged and idealistic bubble of academia, I found myself agreeing with Rand at every turn, filled with the pro-capitalist and individualist spirit. Why should those who work hard and are successful not be suitably rewarded for their efforts? For government to step in and limit those rewards was unfair and high-handed, socialistic even. I mean, the horror. (Did I mention I was in college?) Fast forward a few years. I was out of college and working – paying my dues as...
RIO DE JANEIRO – As the second day of the BIO Latin America conference continued discussions on how to build a innovation-friendly infrastructure in the region, the talk turned to the role of clinical trials, particularly in Brazil, where, despite being one of the top global spenders in the pharmaceutical market, has trailed the other BRIC countries over the last few years in the clinical trial space.
RIO DE JANEIRO – The first-ever BIO Latin America conference opened Wednesday morning, with roughly 450 registered attendees to talk about the biotech sector, with much of the focus on fostering innovation and collaboration.
Rumors of an early approval for Merck & Co. Inc.'s high-profile PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda (pembrolizumab) turned out to be no exaggeration, as the FDA gave its nod to the drug Thursday for use in patients with advanced or unresectable melanoma who are no longer responding to other drugs.
Insmed Inc. priced a $100.1 million public offering Wednesday, more than doubling its cash balance, to support work on Arikayce, which, after yielding mixed data earlier this year, now seems poised to become the first once-daily, inhaled antibiotic for nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.
A rush of biotechs entered the public market Thursday morning, led by a $102 million upsized initial public offering (IPO) by Avalanche Biotechnologies Inc., which priced at the high end of its previously raised range, selling 6 million shares at $17 apiece and receiving an enthusiastic welcome on Nasdaq.
A phase II miss testing a combination of cystic fibrosis (CF) drugs in a heterozygous subset of patients with the F508del mutation slightly dented shares of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. Wednesday morning, but the Boston-based biotech beat analyst estimates in the second quarter and looks well positioned to build out its CF franchise going forward.
Contrafect Corp. priced its initial public offering (IPO) Tuesday for gross proceeds of $36 million to advance its early stage pipeline against drug-resistant pathogens, including a lead lysine candidate for Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia and an antibody combo candidate for influenza.
