• Alvogen Pharma US Inc., of Pine Brook, N.J., said it finalized a transaction with Shionogi & Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, acquiring the exclusive rights to commercialize Naprelan (naproxen sodium) controlled-release tablets in the U.S. Read More
• Biocryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said it dosed the first subject in OPuS-1 (Oral ProphylaxiS-1), a Phase IIa trial testing orally administered BCX4161 in patients with hereditary angioedema. Read More
• Quest Pharmatech Inc., of Edmonton, Alberta, said it continued an exclusive license agreement with Stanford University to develop and market anti-MUC1 IgE technology for the treatment of cancer. Read More
Abstracts of the data that are to be presented at the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting next month were released Thursday. And the biggest market response to trial data involved Geron Corp’s myelofibrosis drug Imetelstat. Read More
Immungene Inc. landed a $9 million Series A round from Ally Bridge Group, a health care investment firm with offices in Hong Kong and the U.S., to advance its antibody-cytokine fusion technology platform targeting cancer therapies. Read More
Novabay Pharmaceuticals Inc. took a pounding in the stock market Thursday after it reported the failure of a Phase IIb study of its impetigo candidate, auriclosene. The study showed that the drug was safe and well tolerated but did not meet the primary clinical endpoint of the trial. Read More
Just in time for the holidays, the FTC is gifting itself on the biopharma industry by finalizing a change to its premerger notification rule that makes transfers of “all commercially significant rights” to drug, biologic and in vitro diagnostic patents subject to antitrust review under the Hart Scott Rodino (HSR) Act. Read More
• Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, and Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, reported data from a pooled analysis of 17 trials testing linagliptin in people with Type II diabetes and self-reported previous/current liver and biliary disease, with results showing linagliptin demonstrated a statistically significant placebo-adjusted reduction in HbA1c of 0.52 and 0.62 percent in patients with and without hepatobiliary disorders, respectively, from baseline to 24 weeks. Read More
