Allena Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Newton, Mass., said the European Commission has granted orphan drug designation to Allena's investigational product, ALLN-177, Bacillus subtilis oxalate decarboxylase, for the treatment of primary hyperoxaluria (PH), a condition characterized by markedly elevated urinary oxalate excretion. Read More
Sienna Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Westlake Village, Calif., priced its IPO of about 4.3 million shares at $15 each. The company also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 650,000 shares of common stock at the IPO price. Read More
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s '018 patent is unenforceable due to the Tarrytown, N.Y., company's inequitable conduct in prosecuting the patent, which relates to using large DNA vectors to target and modify endogenous genes and chromosomal loci in eukaryotic cells. A practical use of the technology is to target and modify specific genes in mice so the mice develop antibodies that can be used by humans. Read More
Precithera Inc. completed a series A financing of C$36 million (US$29 million) from an investor syndicate that included Sanderling Ventures, Arix Bioscience Ltd., Fonds de solidarité FTQ, CTI Life Sciences and Emerillon Capital. Read More
PARIS – The development of immunotherapy that can cure at least a fraction of formerly deadly cancers has been the greatest medical triumph of recent years. At this week's meeting of the International AIDS Society, multiple presentations discussed the possibilities and practicalities of using the same approach to cure chronic viral infections. Read More
An Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. decision to cut ties with Moderna Therapeutics Inc., Blueprint Medicines Corp. and Arbutus Biopharma Corp. led an eventful day of biopharma earnings reports, shaped by better-than-expected results at the rare disease specialist. Read More
The first U.S. success in using CRISPR/Cas9 to gene edit human embryos has taken place at Oregon Health and Science University, according a report in MIT Technology Review. Read More
DUBLIN – Bavarian Nordic A/S has landed another vaccine development deal with Johnson & Johnson, an alliance worth up to $879 million covering the use of its modified vaccinia ankara (MVA-BN) technology in the development of vaccines against HIV-1 and hepatitis B virus (HBV). Kvistgaard, Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic is receiving $10 million of the total as an up-front payment and another $33 million as an equity investment. Read More
Trovagene Inc., of San Diego, said the FDA approved its IND for PCM-075, a polo-like kinase 1 inhibitor, to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Read More
