Chromocell Corp. CEO Christian Kopfli told BioWorld Today that payments in his firm's potential $500 million deal with Astellas Pharma Inc. are "evenly spaced" along the development path for the oral Nav1.7 inhibitor CC8464 to treat neuropathic pain, for which trials are expected to start next year. Read More
DUBLIN – French start-up Therachon SAS raised $35 million in a series A round to take forward a new treatment for achondroplasia, an autosomal dominant bone growth disorder that causes short-limbed dwarfism. Read More
Corvus Pharmaceuticals Inc., which was quietly incorporated late last year with a $33.5 million series A, doubled down in its second raise, closing a $75 million series B from a syndicate led by Rock Springs Capital Management that included Fidelity Management and Research Co., Blackrock, accounts managed by T. Rowe Price, Jennison Associates on behalf of certain clients, Roche Venture Fund, Cormorant Asset Management, Sphera Funds Management, Venbio Select and Cowen Private Investments. Read More
Hear that sucking sound? It's getting louder as the maelstrom Turing Pharmaceuticals LLC recently churned up over drug prices threatens to engulf another biopharma company. Read More
Myokardia Inc., which is targeting rare, genetically driven forms of heart failure, elected to brave a blustery market for biopharma, filing to raise up to $86.3 million through an IPO on Nasdaq. Read More
HONG KONG — For the first time, biologists have successfully developed functioning whole kidneys with a urinary excretion pathway from human stem cell-generated embryonic kidneys, Japanese researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read More
HONG KONG – Genova Biotechnology Co. Ltd. is aiming to be the largest insulin maker in China, and is starting construction on a $1 billion manufacturing facility in Changzhou National Hi-tech District this month. Read More
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) plans to roll out an enhanced medication therapy management (MTM) model to test strategies to improve Part D medication use among Medicare beneficiaries. Read More
Carsgen Therapeutics, of Shanghai, said it entered a five year research and development agreement with the Shanghai Cancer Institute for the advancement of its CAR-T cancer immunotherapeutics. Read More
Novan Therapeutics, of Durham, N.C., reported that its topical nitric oxide drug candidate for the treatment of acne vulgaris, SB-204, demonstrated a statistically significant 20 percent differential vs. vehicle in the percent change of non-inflammatory (white heads and black heads) and inflammatory (larger red bumps and pustules) lesions at week 12 of a phase IIb study. Read More
