Over the past two years, a handful of biotech companies have achieved the ultimate goal: launching their own products and transitioning from clinical to commercial enterprises.
Despite having a healthy amount of cash in its coffers, ImmunoGen Inc. capitalized on the fact that its stock is heading toward a 10-year high and raised $84 million in a public offering.
Yet again, SIGA Technologies Inc. was awarded a potential $2.8 billion government contract for smallpox drug ST-246. And yet again, rival Chimerix Inc. is challenging the award.
Big pharma has been none too shy about backing away from biotech deals lately, as the likes of Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc., Targacept Inc., Metabolex Inc., S*BIO Pte Ltd., Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc., Renovo plc, Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adolor Corp. and others can attest. BioWorld Insight contributing writer Brian Orelli did some analysis and found 13 terminated pharma-biotech agreements so far this year, compared to eight terminations in the same period last year. What’s the big deal? Chris Dokomajilar, senior biotech analyst at Deloitte Recap LLC, says it’s partially a numbers game: more deal-making activity means more deals that fail. Also to...
Sometimes it’s tough for biotechs to figure out what, exactly, constitutes news. Yesterday, Cell Therapeutics Inc. issued a release stating the FDA had “concluded that accelerated approval of pixantrone NDA 022481 may not necessarily be out of reach based on a single controlled clinical trial.” Not until the second paragraph did readers find out the most important tid-bit: that the FDA had denied their appeal regarding the cancer drug, which received a complete response letter last year. Meanwhile, Vivus Inc. issued first quarter earnings late Monday, but the piece of news everyone was most interested in – the path forward...
Six months after receiving a surprise complete response letter from the FDA for agitation drug AZ-004 (Staccato loxapine), Alexza Pharmaceuticals Inc. padded its coffers before trying again.
