Two strikes – and investor suspense – led up to a home run for Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc., which tweaked the designs of previous, failed Phase III trials and thereby met all endpoints in the latest one with pimavanserin in Parkinson's disease psychosis (PDP). Read More
Purdue Pharmaceutical Products LP will commit $19 million to a six-month direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising program for Intermezzo (zolpidem tartrate), the insomnia drug developed by Transcept Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is kicking in an additional $10 million toward the effort. Read More
LONDON – Vaccines that use synthesized messenger RNA (mRNA) as their building blocks may be able to provide rapid protection against emerging infectious diseases in the future, a new study suggested. Read More
Lanthio Pharma BV found an influential backer for its peptide technology in the shape of antibody developer MorphoSys AG, which has participated in its €4.8 million (US$6.2 million) Series A round and which will help it to develop and commercialize its LanthioPep platform. Read More
Arno Therapeutics Inc., of Flemington, N.J., closed a $12.7 million private placement of convertible debentures to support research and development of oncology drugs onapristone and AR-42. Read More
• Endocyte Inc., of West Lafayette, Ind., and Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., said the European Medicines Agency accepted for review a marketing authorization application for vintafolide (MK-8109/EC145) and the diagnostic imaging agent etarfolatide (EC20), which are in development for targeted treatment of folate-receptor-positive, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer in combination with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin. Read More
• AiCuris GmbH, of Wuppertal, Germany, said it started the second clinical efficacy trial testing pritelivir (AIC316), its herpes simplex virus (HSV) drug, after data from the first study showed a high degree of efficacy against genital herpes. Read More
• Bayer AG, of Leverkusen, Germany, said results of two pivotal Phase III studies, published in The Lancet, demonstrated the efficacy of regorafenib in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer or gastrointestinal stromal tumor who have exhausted all other treatment options. Read More
• Abbott, of Abbott Park, Ill., said the European Commission approved Humira (adalimumab) for the treatment of pediatric patients, ages 6 to 17, with severe active Crohn's disease. Read More
