Opko Health Inc.'s $540.6 million all-stock acquisition of Prolor Biotech Inc. paid off Monday as Pfizer Inc. grabbed an exclusive license to the Prolor-developed long-acting human growth hormone (hGH) for $295 million up front, plus up to $275 million in regulatory milestones.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. has begun enrolling patients for a phase III study of one of its most advanced experimental RNAi therapies, revusiran, a treatment for transthyretin (TTR)-mediated familial amyloidotic cardiomyopathy, a manifestation of TTR-mediated amyloidosis that afflicts about 40,000 people worldwide.
With the relatively recent arrival of new oral anticoagulants (NOACs) vying to displace warfarin with the promise of fewer side effects, easier dosing and less need for regular monitoring, patients and their doctors have gained valuable new tools to reduce the risks of blood clots.
Osteoqc Inc., a new Montreal-based company that will develop therapies for the treatment of bone-related diseases, is leveraging a portfolio of candidates for promoting bone growth developed by Overland Park, Kan.-based Osteogenex Inc. to build a new venture.
SAN FRANCISCO – Bluebird Bio Inc. reported that four young adults with beta-thalassemia major, a severe blood disorder that leads to life-threatening anemia, were able to produce sufficient hemoglobin to reduce or eliminate the need for chronic blood transfusions after being treated with its gene therapy, Lentiglobin BB305.
SAN FRANCISCO – Data from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Merck & Co. Inc. reported at the 56th Annual American Society of Hematology suggest that their PD-1 immunotherapies, Opdivo (nivolumab) and Keytruda (pembrolizumab) respectively, may prove to be powerful tools against lymphomas.
Incyte Corp. has become the first company to win FDA approval for a treatment targeting uncontrolled cases of the rare chronic bone marrow cancer polycythemia vera (PV), which sometimes advances to myelofibrosis.
Array Biopharma Inc. shares (NASDAQ:ARRY) climbed 14.3 percent to $4.47 Thursday as Novartis AG returned full rights to the phase III MEK inhibitor, binimetinib, pledging up to $85 million plus significant follow-on support for Array’s plans to seek approval for using the drug to treat NRAS-mutant melanoma during the first half of 2016.
Naurex Inc. raised an $80 million series C to carry its fast-acting experimental depression therapy, the NMDA receptor modulator GLYX-13, into its first phase III study in mid-2015.
Despite known racial and ethnic differences in patient response to certain drugs, the incorporation of those factors into the construction and execution of global clinical trials remains as complex and controversial as ever.
