Sparking expectations for an IPO to come, gene therapy specialist Audentes Therapeutics Inc. closed an oversubscribed $65 million series C financing co-led by crossover investors Sofinnova Ventures and Redmile Group, a new investor.
In an exclusive global licensing and development deal, Astellas Pharma Inc. is building on a single vaccine deal it struck with Immunomic Therapeutics Inc. (ITI) earlier this year to capture rights to ITI's full portfolio of allergy-focused DNA vaccines. The agreement carries $300 million for ITI up front plus 10 percent royalties of net sales of the potential products while leaving ITI with all rights to additional applications of the company's lysosomal associated membrane protein vaccine, or LAMP-vax, technology.
Voyager Therapeutics Inc., a gene therapy company advancing adeno-associated virus (AAV) treatments for five central nervous system (CNS) disorders, has filed to raise up to $86.3 million in a yet-to-price IPO. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company, formed by Third Rock Ventures, plans to list its shares on Nasdaq under the symbol VYGR.
Nemus Bioscience Inc., a company cultivating close ties with the U.S. government's sole licensed marijuana grower, the University of Mississippi (UM), landed a $5 million series B financing in August.
In an exclusive global licensing and development deal, Astellas Pharma Inc. is building on a single vaccine deal it struck with Immunomic Therapeutics Inc. (ITI) earlier this year to capture rights to ITI's full portfolio of allergy-focused DNA vaccines.
Taurx Therapeutics Ltd., a company advancing a potentially powerful prodrug of methylthioninium chloride for the potential prevention of neurodegenerative diseases, has closed a $135 million equity financing that will support completion and analysis of phase III trials of the tau aggregation inhibitor (TAI), called LMT-X, in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia.
Exelixis Inc.'s MEK-inhibitor cobimetinib, given in combination with Roche AG's Zelboraf (vemurafenib), significantly improved overall survival (OS) vs. Zelboraf alone for previously untreated patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic melanoma carrying a BRAF V600 mutation, according to new top-line results reported by Exelixis partner Genentech, a unit of Roche.
Florida-based drug developers, Biscayne Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Insero Health Inc., have merged to advance a synthetic version of a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) – into phase Ib/IIa proof of concept in epilepsy by mid- to late 2016 and a cancer compound headed for investigational new drug application-enabling studies.
Shares of Xoma Corp. (NASDAQ:XOMA) leapt to life Thursday, climbing 43.7 percent to close at $1.08 after the company struck an exclusive licensing deal with Novartis AG that could carry up to $517 million in rewards, plus royalties.
Myokardia Inc., which is targeting rare, genetically driven forms of heart failure, elected to brave a blustery market for biopharma, filing to raise up to $86.3 million through an IPO on Nasdaq.
