Global private companies have started out the year in record fashion, attracting more than $4.4 billion in the first quarter, 10 percent more than the $4 billion generated in the first quarter last year. In fact, it is also the highest amount raised in this period in the past decade. Read More
VIENNA – On track to file for regulatory approval later this year in both the U.S. and Europe, Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. solidified its position as a research leader in the nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with liver fibrosis field, presenting a broader dataset of its phase III trial of obeticholic acid (OCA, Ocaliva). Read More
Asklepios Biopharmaceutical Inc. (Askbio), a North Carolina-based gene therapy pioneer, has secured $235 million in fresh funding that it said will help advance and expand its clinical work, enhance its manufacturing capabilities and drive its long-term growth. TPG Capital and Vida Ventures invested $225 million for a minority stake in the company while Askbio's founders and board members added $10 million more. Read More
LONDON – The World Health Organization (WHO) is setting up a department for digital health, in a bid to become a standard setter in the field and help member countries to set up and regulate national digital health systems. Read More
In the second week of April, Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. nailed a third indication milestone in its deal with Astrazeneca plc, of London, as a result of dosing the first patient in a phase II combination trial testing MEDI-0457 (formerly called INO-3112) in combination with durvalumab, an anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, to target cervical, anal, penile and vulvar cancers associated with human papillomavirus (HPV). Read More
Syncona Ltd. has merged two of its companies, U.K.-based Gyroscope Therapeutics Ltd., a biotech developing gene therapy for retinal diseases, and U.S.-based Orbit Biomedical Ltd., a medical device company that targets delivery of gene and cell therapies into the retina, to create a single retinal gene therapy company. Read More
Makers of drugs and devices are justifiably concerned about intellectual property theft by mainland China, but it has come to light that Beijing has extended its espionage tentacles into institutions handling research grants provided by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. NIH Director Francis Collins advised a Senate committee that the agency is working to suppress such intellectual property theft, but noted that for some of the institutions receiving those grants, "there was initially some surprise and even denial" about the problem, a state of disbelief that more than four dozen FBI investigations seem to have resolved. Read More
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) plans to assess the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of Novo Nordisk A/S' oral semaglutide, which is under FDA review, and other FDA-approved treatments for type 2 diabetes. Read More
Martis Capital Management LLC, a U.S. health care-focused private equity firm, said it has closed, at its fundraising hard cap, a third fund, Martis Partners III LP, with $545 million in aggregate capital commitments. Read More
I-Mab Biopharma (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., of Shanghai, said it entered a collaboration with Roche Holding AG, of Basel, Switzerland, to evaluate its CD73 antagonist, TJD-5, in combination with Tecentriq (atezolizumab). Roche will supply atezolizumab for use in clinical study, with rights generated in the study belonging jointly to the companies. Read More
