Ceptaris Therapeutics Inc. found a home for its single asset, Valchlor (mechlorethamine gel), with Actelion U.S. Holdings Co., a subsidiary of Swiss drugmaker Actelion Ltd. But there's a catch: The $250 million deal is contingent upon FDA approval of the product. Read More
From here on out, drugmakers can bet their bottom dollar the sun'll be shining on their financial dealings with doctors and teaching hospitals, but there are still a lot of cobwebs that need to be cleared away as the Physician Payment Sunshine Act goes into effect today. Read More
While Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s $1.6 billion double acquisition of Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Trius Therapeutics Inc. has gone down on the books as one of the biggest biotech events of the year, some analysts are crying foul at Optimer's surprisingly low selling price of $10.75 per share, or 20 percent below the stock's closing price of $13.29 on July 30, but it is barely more than 50 percent of the $20 per share offer Cubist made earlier this year. Read More
In one of the largest private financings for biotech this year, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. pulled in $60 million in a Series C round to move into the clinic with its lead RNAi-based candidates against genetically defined targets in disease areas such as oncology. Read More
A new mouse model combines transgenes and tweaks to the innate immune system to make "a mouse model with heritable susceptibility to hepatitis C," Alexander Ploss told BioWorld Today. Read More
• Elusys Therapeutics Inc., of Pine Brook, N.J., released data from three completed studies of ETI-204 (Anthim), an anthrax anti-toxin, administered by intramuscular injection (IM). Two of the studies assessed IM administration of ETI-204 following challenge with aerosolized B. anthracis spores (either before or after the development of symptoms of anthrax). Read More
• Delmar Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, opened its third clinical trial site at the Brain Tumor Center at University of California, San Francisco. Delmar is conducting a Phase I/II dose-escalation study designed to assess the safety and activity of VAL-083 as a potential treatment for brain cancer patients suffering from glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) who have failed standard therapies and have no viable treatment options. Read More
• Life Technologies Corp., of Carlsbad, Calif., signed a long-term supply and exclusive licensing agreement with Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, for immunotherapeutics involving T cells modified to express chimeric antigen receptors for the treatment of cancer. Read More
• Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, and Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, jointly announced enrollment of the first patient into a cardiovascular (CV) and renal outcomes trial for the dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor linagliptin (Tradjenta) tablets. Read More
