DUBLIN – Morphosys AG and Galapagos NV are splitting $111 million up front and could share up to $1 billion more in development, regulatory and commercial milestones from a licensing deal with Novartis AG on their jointly developed interleukin-17C (IL-17C) inhibitor, MOR-106, for atopic dermatitis and potentially other indications. Read More
Shares of Mersana Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:MRSN) sank to a historic low after the company reported an FDA partial clinical hold on the phase I study of XMT-1522 following the death of a trial participant deemed by the investigator as "possibly drug-related." Read More
About one year after its sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMS), Boston-based IFM Therapeutics LLC is launching a subsidiary called IFM Tre with a $31 million series A round to support research into NLRP3 antagonists, "a very competitive space, both in the biotech and the pharma sector," Gary Glick, CEO and co-founder, told BioWorld. "NLRP3 is very large, and no one has been able to reproduce it recombinantly," he said. "The structure is not well-characterized. There are no natural ligands for it. [Researchers can't use] a lot of the tricks that folks would use and the tools that would be employed to find chemical matter early. It's very hard to work with." Read More
HONG KONG – The China National Drug Administration (CNDA) has approved the first domestically developed HIV drug. Known as Aikening (albuvirtide for injection), the novel drug was developed by Frontier Biotechnologies Inc., of Nanjing, to treat HIV-1 infection. Read More
Using genome editing in liver cells, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have lowered the levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol in monkeys by up to 60 percent. Read More
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb hammered home what could become another nail in the coffin for prescription drug rebates as he laid out a Biosimilar Action Plan intended to enliven what he called an anemic U.S. biosimilar market. Read More
Aridis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Jose, Calif., has filed to raise $34.5 million in an IPO. The company is focused on the discovery and development of targeted immunotherapies using fully human monoclonal antibodies to treat infections. Read More
The U.S. Department of Justice said Angiodynamics Inc., of Latham, N.Y., has agreed to pay $12.5 million to resolve allegations the company induced providers to submit false claims in connection with two of the company's offerings, including the perforator vein ablation kit. Read More
Ryboquin Ltd., of Selkirk, U.K., acquired Nanogenic Solutions LLC, of Union City, Calif., to form a new product and platform company, Nanogenics Ltd., and advance gene therapies. Nanogenics is developing Liptide, an artificial virus, which acts as a custom-built delivery system that can be modified to target different cell types and deliver different payloads, making the promise of gene therapy one step closer to reality, the companies said. Terms were not disclosed. Read More
