Shares of Lion Biotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ:LBIO) climbed 43.4 percent to $8.65 on Friday as the cancer immunotherapy developer announced the appointment of new President and CEO Maria Fardis and a $100 million equity financing led by Quogue Capital, Orbimed Advisors, Frazier Healthcare Partners and Broadfin Capital.
Dermira Inc. reported positive top-line results from its phase III ATMOS-1 and ATMOS-2 pivotal trials for DRM04 (glycopyrronium tosylate), a topical candidate for patients with excessive underarm sweating, also known as primary axillary hyperhidrosis.
A new treatment for Zika virus could soon be brewing inside average computers and mobile phones. Virtual experiments, run on a globe-spanning supercomputer, are already blazing through millions of compounds against key target proteins. Once the field is winnowed, robots will test likely contenders.
Patients living with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), a rare chronic and gradually progressive liver disease, have gained a new second-line therapy with FDA approval for Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Ocaliva (obeticholic acid).
Shares of Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:RETA) climbed 18.8 percent to $13.07 from an IPO price of $11 on Thursday, in which the sale of 5.5 million shares raised net proceeds of $52.5 million. Funds from the offering, which had initially been slated to raise as much as $64 million, will be used to advance Reata’s lead antioxidant inflammation modulator (AIM), bardoxolone methyl, through a phase III trial and additional phase II programs. Another AIM, omaveloxolone, will also be moved through phase II.
Seattle Genetics Inc. (Seagen) started its second-ever phase III study, pitting a CD33-targeted antibody-drug conjugate paired with widely used hypomethylating agents (HMA) vs. HMAs alone in older patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
Preliminary data from a pivotal phase III test of experimental HIV drug ibalizumab, developed by Taimed Biologics Inc. and slated for marketing by Theratechnologies Inc., helped 82.5 percent of patients receiving it meet the study's primary endpoint of a decrease of ≥ 0.5 log10 in viral load following a seven-day treatment period. Theratechnologies shares (TSX:TH) climbed 8.5 percent to close at C$2.55 (US$1.94) on Tuesday.
Arbor Pharmaceuticals LLC, of Atlanta, has moved to buy Xenoport Inc. for $467 million in cash, adding the restless leg and postherpetic neuralgia drug Horizant (gabapentin enacarbil) to its neurology portfolio.
Macrogenics Inc. shares (NASDAQ:MGNX) climbed 16.7 percent to $21.06 on Wednesday as Janssen Biotech Inc. extended its collaboration with the company, agreeing to pay $75 million up front for a global license to MGD015, a preclinical bispecific antibody targeting CD3 and an undisclosed tumor target for the potential treatment of various hematological malignancies and solid tumors.
