Tetralogic Pharmaceuticals Inc. added its name to the growing list of biotechs aiming to take advantage of the booming initial public offering (IPO) market, filing for a potential $103.5 million IPO to fund work on its cancer drug pipeline.
The future for Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s cancer drug Iclusig (ponatinib) got murkier Friday after the company said it decided to terminate the Phase III EPIC study testing the pan-Bcr-Abl inhibitor in first-line chronic myelogenous leukemia, a week after disclosing a partial clinical hold due to troubling safety data.
Citing a higher-than-expected placebo response and pointing to “encouraging” data in a subset of Crohn’s disease patients did little to assuage investor fears Monday as Coronado Biosciences Inc. reported that CNDO-201, its pig whipworm egg-based candidate, missed its endpoint in the Phase II TRUST-1 study.
When it comes to breast cancer treatment, there’s no shortage of drugs in development. Cortellis, the database run by BioWorld’s new parent Thomson Reuters, shows more than 3,500 drugs in development in the space.
In another piece of good news for the biotech initial public offering (IPO) market, Macrogenics Inc. priced its IPO as expected Thursday, selling 5 million shares at $16 apiece, and then watched as shares (NASDAQ:MGNX) opened 53 percent higher on the first day of trading.
Shares of Ariad Pharmaceuticals lost two-thirds of their value Wednesday after follow-up safety data showing increased incidents of arterial blood clots in patients treated with Iclusig (ponatinib) prompted an FDA partial clinical hold and left analysts worrying about how the news will affect the drug’s position as a potential blockbuster.
Two months after shares of Neostem Inc. made the leap to Nasdaq, the New York-based firm added some much-needed capital, raising $35 million to support its expanding cell therapy business, including a lead therapeutic candidate aimed at heart attack patients.
Mention autologous cell therapy and Dendreon Corp.’s commercially challenged prostate cancer vaccine Provenge (sipuleucel-T) usually comes first to mind. Despite an innovative scientific approach – using a patient’s own cells in a personalized treatment – the product’s sales have been hampered by manufacturing complexity, reimbursement issues and increasing competition in the prostate cancer space, so much so that even the much-awaited European approval provoked little excitement. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 18, 2013.)
Following disappointing results from Arqule Inc.’s Phase III study in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) a year ago, analysts had all but written off tivantinib in that indication. But detailed data reported at this week’s European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam suggested the oral MET inhibitor might have an opportunity in NSCLC after all.
