Most people's bucket lists include things like traveling to exotic places and reuniting with long lost friends. But philanthropists have harder decisions to make. In 2007, when Denny Sanford donated $400 million to the Sioux Valley Health System, of Sioux Falls, S.D., he turned to a panel of experts to decide how best to use the gift. His requirements were simple. The project should address a disease of relevance to the population of the region, and should cure it within the 73-year-old philanthropist's lifetime.
ArQule Inc. priced a public offering of 7 million shares of common stock at $6.15 per share to boost research and development of its pipeline of cancer products. The offering, which is expected to close Jan. 25, grants underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1.05 million additional shares to cover overallotments.
Top-line results from a Phase III trial showed that Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s ridaforolimus has promise as a treatment for metastatic soft-tissue or bone sarcoma. In the trial designated SUCCEED, carried out under a special protocol assessment granted by the FDA, there was a 28 percent reduction in the risk of progression compared to placebo, and a 21 percent (or 3.1 week) improvement in progression-free survival.
Pacira Pharmaceuticals Inc. has big plans for 2011. The Parsippany, N.J.-based company expects to make an initial public offering with expected net proceeds of up to $65.9 million to get its lead analgesic candidate Exparel (bupivacaine) off the ground.
Stock in BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. fell 6.7 percent Thursday after the Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based company said it would extend the enrollment period for a trial of peramivir for hospitalized influenza patients. The company revised its clinical trial design for the study in response to feedback from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Under a new partnership agreement between the two companies, GlaxoSmithKline plc will leverage Epizyme Inc.'s histone methyltransferase (HMT) platform to explore epigenetic targets for cancer therapy.
Civitas Therapeutics Inc., a new spinout from Alkermes Inc., is off to a good start with $20 million in Series A financing from its founding investor Longitude Capital and co-lead Canaan Partners. Civitas, of Chelsea, Mass., is born of Alkermes' pulmonary delivery technology with pipeline assets and commercial-ready manufacturing facilities. Alkermes retains a significant equity position in the new biotech.
For anyone hoping to get in on the ground floor of Seattle Genetics Inc.'s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), it's already too late. The licensing deal by Pfizer Inc. for access to a single target, at $8 million up front and $200 million in milestones, was closed at a significant premium over a similar deal in December 2009 with GlaxoSmithKline plc. In that deal, GSK paid $12 million up front with $390 million in milestones for several targets.
Tetralogic Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Malvern, Pa., is wasting no time putting its series C financing to work. The company closed a second and final tranche of $23 million, out of a total $37 million, and has already dosed its first cohort in a Phase Ib/IIa open-label, non-randomized, dose-escalation safety and tolerability study of TL32711 for advanced or metastatic solid tumors.
