While other drugmakers are spending billions of dollars in pursuit of the next-generation hepatitis C treatment, Okairos AG is on a quest for the holy grail – a preventive hepatitis C virus (HCV) vaccine. Read More
Kala Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Waltham, Mass., raised $6.2 million in equity financing from its existing investors. The new round completes its seed financing of $11.2 million to support its pipeline in diseases affecting mucosal tissues, including cystic fibrosis. Read More
Cancer vaccines, long the red-headed stepchildren of biotech, were briefly catapulted into the limelight by Dendreon Corp.'s 2010 approval of Provenge (sipuleucel-T) only to be dragged back down by that drug's disappointing sales. Read More
• BioDelivery Sciences International Inc., of Raleigh, N.C., said the New Jersey Federal Court granted a stay of further litigation in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by MonoSol Rx LLC, of Warren, N.J. The case will be stayed pending resolution by the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) of re-examination proceedings. It followed rejection by the PTO of all claims in all three patents asserted by MonoSol against BDSI. Read More
• Oncothyreon Inc., of Seattle, said it enrolled the first patient in a Phase I trial of ONT-10, a therapeutic vaccine directed at MUC1. The study is designed to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in patients with cancers that commonly express MUC1, including breast, non-small-cell lung, ovarian, colorectal, prostate, pancreatic and gastric cancers. Read More
• Roche AG, of Basel Switzerland, said it received a request for additional information from the Federal Trade Commission in connection with its proposed acquisition of Illumina Inc., of San Diego, pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. Read More
