As the biotech industry matured – and drug makers both big and small faced capital constraints – spinning off assets into separate companies developed into a popular mechanism to increase shareholder value. Read More
Medivation Inc.'s strong Phase III survival data for prostate cancer drug MDV-3100 raise two questions. First, can the prostate cancer market support so many players? And second, with the bar for survival edging higher, is there a place for Phase III prostate cancer trials with alternate endpoints, like Exelixis Inc.'s pain-focused study of cabozantinib?Analysts say yes on both counts.While many prostate cancer drugs are starting to come onto the market, they are largely targeting different stages of the disease. Read More
If successful, efforts to reduce the 12 years of data exclusivity granted under the Affordable Care Act for innovative biologics could prove to be costly for patients, payers and the companies that make the drugs.Reducing data exclusivity to seven years, as the president and a number of lawmakers have proposed, would be disruptive to the marketplace as it would encourage at-risk launches of biosimilars and lead to unnecessary patent litigation, said Dave Fox, former associate chief counsel for drugs at the FDA and a partner at Hogan Lovells. Read More
FinancingsClovis Oncology Inc. set terms for its proposed $130.2 million initial public offering.Dynavax Technologies Corp. raised $60 million in a public stock offering.Human Genome Sciences Inc. priced a public offering of $494.5 million in convertible senior notes.Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc. completed a $10 million Series A2 financing.Verastem Inc. filed to raise $50 million in an initial public offering.Deals Read More
"At the end of the day, the fundamentals of a company are what matters to investors."– Alan Auerbach, CEO of Puma Biotechnology Inc., arguing that it doesn't matter whether a firm goes public via IPO or reverse merger"We don't want everyone going public. That's bad for business."– Matthew Perry, of Biotechnology Value Fund, explaining that good companies can always IPO, but an "IPO window" means bad companies are getting out"I think you still need the mad scientist type CSO. You can't rent that person out." Read More
