Pearl Therapeutics Inc.'s consortium of investors returned for a Series D financing round worth $65 million. The funds, provided by lead investor Vatera Capital, along with 5AM Ventures, Clarus Ventures and New Leaf Venture Partners, will support Phase III studies of Pearl's candidate for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), PT003.
Gilead Sciences Inc. reported stunning interim results from its Phase II ELECTRON study of 12 weeks of therapy with investigational hepatitis C (HCV) combo sofosbuvir (GS-7977) and GS-5885 with ribavirin showing the best-possible results at four weeks after treatment, a 100 percent sustained virologic response (SVR4).
Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., filed with the SEC an S-1 for an initial public offering (IPO) worth $69 million to support its work in the area of hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Dendreon Corp. reported its third-quarter earnings, handing in a net loss of $154.9 million, or $1.04 per share. That loss was larger than consensus estimates. Provenge (sipuleucel-T) revenues also fell short of consensus, at $78 million, vs. $80.7 million.
Moving aggressively to gain ground in the race for an all-oral hepatitis C virus (HCV) regimen, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., has put forward its nucleotide analogue HCV polymerase inhibitor, VX-135, in two collaborative, proof-of-concept Phase II trials with two different pharma partners.
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., could result in a loss of up to €120 million (US$155 million) for its partner Ipsen SA, according to a statement by the Paris-based pharma company Wednesday.
Pfizer Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. each postponed earnings reports until Tuesday due to disruptions in transit and other preparations for Hurricane Sandy, a tropical storm of unprecedented size and strength complicated by a number of other meteorological events, including a major winter storm and a landfall perfectly timed for high tide.
Revlimid led Celgene Corp.'s lineup of third-quarter product revenues with $970 million in sales, divided nearly equally between U.S. and international sales. Abraxane, Vidaza and Thalomid also racked up healthy sales, bringing the Summit, N.J.-based pharma company to $1.419 billion in total revenue for the third quarter, a 14 percent increase over the same period in 2011.
Amidst a venture capital climate that could most charitably be described as "tough" for early stage biotech, Mirna Therapeutics Inc., of Austin, Texas, completed a $34.5 million Series C financing led by Sofinnova Ventures, with New Enterprise Associates, Pfizer Ventures, Osage University Partners, Correlation Ventures and some existing investors.
AstraZeneca plc will be Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s development and commercialization partner for linaclotide in the vast China territory. Ironwood filed a clinical trial application with China's State Food and Drug Administration for a Phase III study of linaclotide in irritable bowel with constipation (IBS-C).
