SAN FRANCISCO – There's no time like now to think about the potential political changes, opportunities and challenges down the road for industry, Hogan Lovells partner Ivan Zapien told luncheon attendees during this year's Biotech Showcase.
SAN FRANCISCO – Atop the stage where, just a year ago, he'd detailed the then-new $74 billion acquisition of Celgene Corp, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. CEO Giovanni Caforio told attendees of this year's J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference he intends to plunge ahead with "the agility and speed of a biotech company."
SAN FRANCISCO – Pacing the stage at this year's China Showcase Saturday, Chinabio CEO Greg Scott sounded a touch disappointed. Last year lacked the kind of record-breaking stats he likes to punctuate with iconic explosions, a common image in his widely valued China health care talks. "Simply stated, business is continuing as normal," he said.
Eqrx Inc., a new venture created to advance fast-follower drugs that founding CEO Alexis Borisy said will be priced "radically lower" than first-in-class medicines, launched with $200 million in series A financing.
California's Amunix Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Roche Holding AG has agreed to license its therapeutic half-life extension technology, XTEN, for an effort to discover and develop new non-oncology therapies. The deal, which includes $40 million up front, plus up to $1.5 billion in development and sales milestones, builds on a previous technology evaluation agreement the companies first inked in 2013.
Fresh off ending one antifibrosis program in December, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (BI) is spinning up an expansive new effort in the area this month, promising Singapore-based Enleofen Bio Pte. Ltd. potential payouts of more than $1 billion per product from a preclinical interleukin-11 platform.
Adagene Inc., an immuno-oncology company with operations in both the U.S. and China, has raised a $69 million series D financing to support its development of two monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) and extension of its technology-driven in-house antibody design platform. Its two lead candidates are a phase I MAb targeting CD137 and a preclinical MAb targeting CTLA4.
Novome Biotechnologies Inc., a startup developing a hyperoxaluria therapy based on controlled colonization of the gut with engineered bacteria, has landed a $33 million series A financing and appointed former Achaogen Inc. chief Blake Wise as CEO.
A closely watched bid by Incyte Corp. to tackle acute graft-vs.-host-disease (GVHD) with the JAK1 inhibitor itacitinib has fallen flat in pivotal testing, leaving analysts skeptical about the drug's future and pessimistic about the company's R&D chops.
Nearly four years after its start, a phase III trial of Gamida Cell Ltd.'s ex vivo expanded cord blood candidate, omidubicel, for hematologic malignancies is fully enrolled, the company said.
