Amgen Inc. began to close the book Tuesday on several federal investigations and whistleblower suits involving its marketing practices when it pleaded guilty in federal district court to a misdemeanor charge of off-label marketing of Aranesp, which posted global sales of $2.3 billion in 2011. Read More
The potential $500 million deal signed by Sutro Biopharma Inc. with Celgene Corp. includes two undisclosed targets against which antibody conjugates and bispecific antibodies will be deployed, plus the manufacturing of a Celgene-owned antibody, as the latter company explores Sutro's platform in multiple areas. Read More
Less than a year after the acquisition of Alvos Therapeutics Inc. gave Arrowhead Research Corp. a library of 42,000 individual targeting sequences, the company has attracted a second research collaboration and license deal. Read More
Advocates for the blind community are hailing new Phase III results for a drug that could provide relief from the debilitating symptoms of non-24-hour syndrome, a disorder in which the body is unable to reset its body clock to a 24-hour day, and which affects a majority of blind people because of the lack of light perception. Read More
Shares of Canadian firm Allon Therapeutics Inc. lost 94 percent of their value Tuesday afternoon on news that the company's pivotal study of lead candidate davunetide failed to show an effect in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Read More
Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG and Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Biotech Inc., have thrown in their lot together in a combined effort to develop antagonists of retinoic acid-related orphan receptor gamma (RORγt) for inflammatory disease. Read More
With a new CEO and $16 million in Series B money, combination-drug developer Blend Therapeutics Inc. is putting oomph behind a platinum-based therapy – a new chemical entity unto itself – to be made with the company's nanoparticle technology. Read More
• Lorus Therapeutics Inc., of Toronto, signed a collaboration agreement with Brock University of St. Catherines, Ontario, for the development of cancer drugs based on chemical derivatives of the natural compound pancratistatin. Read More
• Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., of San Diego, provided an update on its cardiovascular outcomes trial for obesity candidate Contrave (naltrexone SR/buproprion). Read More
• Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., and GE Healthcare, of Princeton, N.J., inked a clinical study collaboration, license and supply agreement for the use of [18F]Flutemetamol, an investigational positron emission tomography imaging agent, to support Merck's development of MK-8931, an oral, beta-amyloid precursor protein site cleaving enzyme inhibitor in development for Alzheimer's disease. Read More
