Formed earlier this year to marry U.S. innovation and Chinese capital, start-up Ascletis Inc. pulled in a whopping $100 million in committed Series A funding, with the first $50 million tranche expected to support its dual operation strategy for about five years. Read More
As threatened last week, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is moving to replace Cephalon Inc.'s board of directors following a rejection of its $5.7 billion hostile takeover bid. And the big pharma isn't taking "no" as a final answer: It's putting the question to Cephalon stockholders. Read More
In a study published this week, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute have discovered a strong new risk factor – the gut flora – for developing atherosclerotic heart disease and risk for heart attack, stroke and death. Read More
WASHINGTON – Everybody's doing it, even the FDA. Using social media, that is. But the online community can be hostile territory for biopharma as the FDA has provided little guidance on where drugmakers can go and what they can do in this 21st century neighborhood. Read More
• Medicago Inc., of Quebec City, entered a research collaboration with an unnamed global pharmaceutical company to develop a non-influenza vaccine candidate. Medicago will apply its transient expression system to develop a vaccine candidate for the undisclosed target. Read More
• Avila Therapeutics Inc., of Waltham, Mass., reported that it completed two Phase Ia clinical studies for AVL-292, its orally available, selective inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase. Avila presented summary results from the first-in-human study, AVL-292-001, at the Keystone Symposium on Molecular and Cellular Biology. In the double-blind, placebo-controlled, single ascending dose study in healthy volunteers, AVL-292-001 demonstrated favorable safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics. Read More
• Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem, Israel, and OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Bothell, Wash., presented preclinical data on their investigational compound custirsen (OGX-011/TV-1011), which is being investigated in Phase III studies in castrate-resistant prostate cancer. Custirsen is designed to block production of clusterin, a cell survival protein that is over-produced in several cancer types and in response to many cancer treatments. The companies also presented data showing an inhibitory effect of custirsen on heat-shock protein 90 (HSP90) in prostate cancer cells. Inhibition of HSP90 is being investigated as a strategy to treat prostate cancer, and the addition of custirsen may enhance the activity of HSP90 inhibitors. Read More
