As the question of what to do about U.S. drug prices becomes more urgent, a House committee launched yet another probe into drug prices and the administration fleshed out its proposal to reimburse Medicare Part B drugs based on an international pricing index (IPI) model. Read More
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. is seeking to close the books on the 10-year development program for sotagliflozin (previously LX-4211), its oral dual inhibitor of sodium glucose co-transporter (SGLT) 1 and 2, in type 1 diabetes (T1D). The company's pivotal phase III trial showed that individuals with T1D treated with sotagliflozin achieved statistically significant reductions in A1C at 24 weeks. Less favorable was a small incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in the treatment arms, an issue that has dogged SGLT2 inhibitors as a class. Read More
HONG KONG – The late December IPO of Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co., shortly after the company got a green light for the first made-in-China immunotherapy treatment, delivered a strong close to 2018 for the country's biotech industry. But it did little to mask the huge losses that Chinese pharma stocks suffered through the year. Read More
Norwood, Mass.-based Corbus Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s deal earlier this month with Kaken Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, to develop and commercialize lenabasum for systemic sclerosis (SS) and dermatomyositis (DM) in Japan shone more light on drug developers' prospects in the former indication, but interest already ran high in some quarters. Read More
Bioharmony Therapeutics Inc., a New York-based startup developing lysins to fight bacterial infections, has secured support from Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH to develop a therapy for multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter infections, a frequent cause of hospital-acquired pneumonia, blood and wound infections. Financial terms of the licensing and collaboration deal, arranged by Boehringer's Research Beyond Borders (RBB) program, were not disclosed. Read More
Bio-Path Holdings Inc., of Houston, said it intends to offer and sell, subject to market and other conditions, shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering. It plans to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and general corporate purposes. Read More
Stellapharma Inc., of Raleigh, N.C., will acquire rights and IP related to a dry powder nasal formulation of epinephrine being developed for anaphylaxis from G2B Pharma Inc., of Corte Madera, Calif. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Read More
