To create product candidate AVP-923, Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. bundled cough medicine dextromethorphan with antiarrhythmic agent quinidine. Now the duo of medicine cabinet staples has prevailed against an unrelated third indication: diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
New York-based biotech start-up Oligomerix Inc. is pressing a multipronged attack against tau protein, an alternate Alzheimer's disease target, using a combination of small-molecule and antibody therapeutics coupled with biomarker strategies.
Stock in Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc. surged more than 131 percent on news that it signed a deal with Merck KGaA valued at up to $550 million to develop and commercialize Threshold's cancer candidate, TH-302.
Three months ahead of schedule, the FDA approved Kalydeco (ivacaftor), a new cystic fibrosis drug from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass. The drug targets the G551D mutation of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene in cystic fibrosis, which affects about 4 percent of patients with the disease, or about 1,200 patients in the U.S.
Verastem Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., priced a $55 million initial public offering (IPO), selling 5.5 million shares of its common stock at $10 per share, with an underwriters option for an additional 825,000 shares to cover overallotments.
Perhaps the ultimate sign of a satisfied customer is a willingness to pay more than $1 billion for a company after using a product for six months. Having had a taste of Micromet Inc.'s BiTE antibody platform through a license agreement inked July 12, 2011, Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif., offered $1.16 billion to acquire the Rockville, Md.-based company.
The board of directors for Illumina Inc. is mulling over an unsolicited acquisition offer by Roche AG, of Basel, Switzerland, to purchase all outstanding shares in the San Diego-based genomics tools giant for $5.7 billion, or $44.50 per share in cash.
A gene therapy based on channelrhodopsin-2, from green algae, already has shown efficacy in restoring light sensitivity to animals that have lost photoreceptors. The product, RST-001, is RetroSense Therapeutics LLC's lead candidate in a pipeline targeted at certain types of retinal degeneration.
Neurocrine Biosciences Inc., of San Diego, priced an underwritten public offering 9.5 million shares of common stock at $8. 10 per share, a 6.25 percent discount to Wednesday's closing price, for gross proceeds of $77 million.
