Shares of Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. gained 35.5 percent Friday after the European Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended that leukemia drug Iclusig (ponatinib) remain on the market in Europe.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. isn’t above using a good trick twice. Back in 2008, the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm picked up $160 million by selling royalty rights to two Glaxosmithkline plc-marketed drugs to help push through late-stage testing with then-game-changing hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug telaprevir.
Shares of Pozen Inc. jumped 14.6 percent Tuesday on news that U.S. commercialization of Vimovo, its approved gastric-friendly nonsteroidal inflammatory drug, would be transferring to specialty pharma Horizon Pharma USA Inc., a company that has shown early success in marketing its own similar combo product, Duexis.
Shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. jumped 17.4 percent Friday on news of an expanded alliance with Eisai Inc. for obesity drug Belviq (lorcaserin), a deal that brings $60 million up front and aims to advance the drug into new commercial markets and possibly new indications.
On the heels of better-than-expected third quarter sales for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) drug Esbriet (pirfenidone) in Europe, Intermune Inc. priced a public offering to raise $84.5 million to help fund additional studies of Esbriet, including the pivotal trial needed for U.S. approval of the drug and studies to expand its use in IPF and other indications.
With Gilead Sciences Inc. barely a month away from a possible history-making FDA approval of an all-oral regimen for hepatitis C virus (HCV), the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) meeting in Washington put the spotlight on other HCV contenders over the weekend, with much of the buzz focused on a protease inhibitor/NS5A inhibitor combination from Merck & Co. Inc.
Back in 2007, an Alzheimer’s disease candidate called Alzhemed missed its endpoint in a large-scale pivotal study, just one of many late-stage failures in the space, along with Myriad Genetics Inc.’s Flurizan, Medivation Inc.’s Dimebon, Eli Lilly and Co.’s semagacestat and bapineuzumab from Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson/Eland Corp. plc.
As further proof that cancer immunotherapy is no longer the biopharma pariah of several years ago, Immune Design Corp. closed a $49 million Series C round to advance its lead candidates into the clinic.
It’s hard to imagine there was a time when stalwart biotech giant Amgen Inc. was just a small start-up begging for investments. But veteran life sciences venture capitalist Jim Blair doesn’t have to imagine; he was there.
Amgen Inc. posted higher-than-expected third quarter earnings, thanks in large part to a hefty one-time government purchase of Neupogen (filgrastim). That contract, combined with anticipated revenues from recently acquired Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., prompted the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based biotech to bump up its revenue guidance for the year but fell short of distracting investors and analysts away from long-term plans for growth.
