Top-line results from a Phase II trial of TO-2061, for obsessive compulsive disorder, were a let-down for Transcept Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Point Richmond, Calif. The data showed that TO-2061 failed to meet its primary efficacy endpoint of improving OCD symptoms compared to placebo.
A Phase III trial by Amicus Therapeutics Inc., of Cranbury, N.J., and GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, testing a drug candidate for Fabry disease missed its primary and secondary endpoints.
Investors were swooning over the opportunity to participate in a Series B financing round for rare disease-focused Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., of Novato, Calif. The round, expected to be disclosed Thursday morning, completed at $75 million, one of the largest private placements of the year for a biotech company.
Advocates for the blind community are hailing new Phase III results for a drug that could provide relief from the debilitating symptoms of non-24-hour syndrome, a disorder in which the body is unable to reset its body clock to a 24-hour day, and which affects a majority of blind people because of the lack of light perception.
Just one month after devastating news that its gastroparesis candidate, TZP-102, missed its endpoint in a Phase IIb trial, Tranzyme Pharma Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., reported that its a second Phase IIb trial of the same drug was being discontinued after an interim futility analysis showed a large placebo effect and no treatment effect.
Basilea Pharmaceutica AG, of Basel, Switzerland, completed recruiting patients for a Phase III pivotal trial of its antifungal agent, isavuconazole. With partner Astellas Pharma Inc., Basilea is studying safety and efficacy of once-daily isavuconazole compared to twice-daily voriconazole for up to 84 days of treatment in infections caused by Aspergillus or other filamentous fungi.
AstraZeneca plc's top-line results from a Phase IIb study of fostamatinib in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) showed that the drug was superior to placebo at six weeks, but it fell short of a secondary goal of noninferiority against Humira (adalimumab, Abbott), sending shares of partner Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, plunging by almost 35 percent.
Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, dropped its exclusive option to acquire Redwood City, Calif.-based Incline Therapeutics Inc., leaving the specialty pharma free to be acquired by The Medicines Co., of Parsippany, N.J., for $185 million up front, plus regulatory and commercial milestones.
Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem, teamed up with Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Burnaby, British Columbia, for the licensing of Xenon's sodium channel targeted drug, XEN402.
What began as discussions around a scientific collaboration a few months ago blossomed into a full acquisition deal between Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif., and DeCode Genetics, of Reykjavik, Iceland, according to Terry McGuire, of Polaris Venture Partners, which helped form DeCode in the 1990s, and in 2010 purchased it out of bankruptcy with Arch Ventures.
