Even before he helped found antibody firm Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc. in 2004, Chief Scientific Officer John Latham had a developed a taste for small firms and start-ups.
The buyout of Talon Therapeutics Inc. by Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $11.3 million in cash up front and contingent value rights (CVRs) for up to $195 million indicate that the earnout deal remains alive and well in biotech.
Crushing debt forced Unigene Laboratories Inc. into bankruptcy earlier this year, but its promising Peptelligence delivery technology has found a new home in start-up Enteris Biopharma Inc., which launched recently to develop oral formulations of both peptide drugs and currently injectable-only small molecules.
The family of serine proteases known as granzymes – granule secreted enzymes – is a well-known target in the cancer space. Stored in cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells, granzymes are released – with the help of pore-forming protein perforin – into the infected cell to trigger apoptosis.
Shares of Compugen Ltd. jumped 44.5 percent Monday on news of a potential $540 million deal with Bayer Healthcare to develop antibody drugs for cancer immunotherapy, marking the Israeli firm's first substantial revenue-sharing drug development collaboration.
Shares of Compugen Ltd. jumped 44.5 percent Monday on news of a potential $540 million deal with Bayer Healthcare to develop antibody drugs for cancer immunotherapy, marking the Israeli firm's first substantial revenue-sharing drug development collaboration.
Organovo Holdings Inc. boosted its balance sheet by $40.5 million in a public offering to advance work on its 3D bioprinting technology, with aims of delivering to the market applications both for drug discovery and development and for regenerative medicine products.
In one of the largest private financings for biotech this year, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. pulled in $60 million in a Series C round to move into the clinic with its lead RNAi-based candidates against genetically defined targets in disease areas such as oncology.
Amgen Inc. soundly beat second quarter revenue and earnings estimates, but it was the big biotech's acquisition strategy that was the elephant in the room during the Tuesday evening conference call, as company executives were able to head off attempts to tease out details regarding rumors of its recent – and rejected – $10 billion bid for Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.
If the industry needed another sign that preclinical-stage firms are making a comeback as hot investment prospects – last week's upsized initial public offering by Agios Therapeutics Inc., for example, met with an impressive trading debut on Wall Street – privately held Atyr Pharma Inc. delivered more promising news Monday, disclosing an oversubscribed $49 million Series D round to support work on its rare disease pipeline.
