SAN FRANCISCO – After clinical and regulatory setbacks in the latter part of 2013, the news might be getting better for patients with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy (DMD), as two of the most advanced programs reported news at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
SAN FRANCISCO – News of the tentative April 1 advisory committee to discuss Mannkind Corp.’s resubmitted new drug application for inhaled insulin Afrezza (insulin human [rDNA origin]) powder sent the Valencia, Calif.-based firm’s shares falling 16 percent last week.
SAN FRANCISCO – Making the move from investment banking to the world of venture capital at first sounded as though it would yield more free time and a more relaxing occupation; instead, as a managing partner at RMI Partners, Anton Gopka has found himself busier than ever, perhaps never more so than during this year’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
SAN FRANCISCO – Gilead Sciences Inc.’s breakthrough hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug Sovaldi (sofosbuvir), which gained approval in the U.S. in December and got off to a strong start despite typical slowdown of the holidays, is expected to be approved in Europe later this month, likely with favorable pricing.
SAN FRANCISCO – Amid the flurry of deals and financings news to hit on the first day of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc disclosed the latest acquisition to its growing pipeline, with the licensing of a Phase III-ready narcolepsy drug, and its goal of topping the $1 billion revenue mark in 2014.
Executives of Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd. have their work cut out for them Tuesday, as briefing documents released ahead of the Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee questioned whether data are sufficient to prove the efficacy of previously rejected neurogenic orthostatic hypotension (NOH) drug Northera (droxidopa).
A month after reporting promising preclinical data from its zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) therapy in beta-thalassemia at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in New Orleans, Sangamo Biosciences Inc. licensed rights to the technology in a collaboration with Biogen Idec Inc. worth up to about $314 million total.
With investors still awaiting the appointment of a new CEO following Jeremy Levin’s abrupt departure in October, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. made an unsolicited $114 million cash offer for Nupathe Inc., starting a surprise bidding war with Endo Health Solutions, which inked a deal last month to acquire the small specialty pharma firm for $105 million in up-front cash.
Investors continue to be pleased with the progress of Oxygen Biotherapeutics Inc.’s newly acquired cardiovascular drug, levosimendan, sending shares of the Morrisville, N.C.-based firm up more than 20 percent Monday on news that the protocol for the planned Phase III study of the calcium sensitizer had been published on Clinicaltrials.gov.
Back in 2006, a company named Synovex Corp. was launched around discoveries by scientists Michael Brenner and David Lee into the role of Cadherin-11 as an adhesive control part of cell-cell interaction. And for several years, the fully virtual discovery firm operated under the radar until a lead clinical asset emerged: an antibody designed to inhibit Cad-11 designated SDP051.
