Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, extended, through its indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Laurel Acquisition Inc., the offering period to purchase the outstanding common shares of Ocata Therapeutics Inc., of Marlborough, Mass., at $8.50 apiece. Read More
Scancell Holdings plc, of Nottingham, U.K., announced formation of its core U.S. investigator team to lead a phase II checkpoint inhibitor combination study with its lead cancer vaccine, SCIB1. The study will assess the impact of adding SCIB1 to a checkpoint inhibitor in patients with late-stage melanoma. The aim will be to improve the objective response rates of anti-PD-1 monotherapy without adding toxicity. The trial is expected to enroll 80 stage 3/4 metastatic melanoma patients and commence in the second half of 2016, ending around 18 months later. Read More
Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have developed a method for identifying cell lines that could be used as a chemical screen to simultaneously predict multiple pathway-level effects of drugs. Read More
Gelesis Inc., of Boston, closed a $31.5 million financing round that included Cormorant Asset Management and additional undisclosed new institutional investors along with current investors Invesco Asset Management, Puretech and the Priztker/Vlock Family Office. Read More
Shortly after approval by the House, the Senate voted Friday to approve legislation for a $1.15 trillion omnibus spending package that includes a $2 billion boost to the NIH and a $132 million funding increase for the FDA for fiscal year 2016. Read More
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMS) exited development of HIV therapies in a big way, selling its entire R&D pipeline of HIV assets to erstwhile competitor Viiv Healthcare Ltd., the joint venture established in 2009 by Glaxosmithkline plc and Pfizer Inc. to focus on HIV medicines. Read More
LONDON – Astrazeneca plc rounded off a hectic week of corporate activity with three approvals from the EMA, including the green light for its orally available targeted lung cancer therapy, Tagrisso (osimertinib). Read More
A year and a half after landing a $23.5 million series A financing, Navitor Pharmaceuticals Inc. has attracted new investors to a $33 million series B round intended to help it identify a lead candidate in a pipeline of candidates capable of modulating the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 pathway and carrying it into the clinic by early 2018. Read More
Venetoclax (ABT-199, Abbvie Inc./Roche AG), which is currently under review by the FDA and the EMA, has garnered much attention for its ability to help patients with the most difficult to treat form chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Read More
DUBLIN – Bavarian Nordic A/S is banking $9 million up front and could get up to $162 million more in milestone payments from a new partnership with Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals arm to develop a therapeutic vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. Read More
