The recent spike in Hyperion Therapeutics Inc.'s stock proved to be warranted Friday, when the FDA issued an approval for Ravicti (glycerol phenylbutyrate) for the chronic management of some urea cycle disorders (UCDs) in patients, ages 2 and older. Read More
As small biotech firms and others struggle with ways to go public and stay afloat after they do, the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies met for the third time to sort through possible relief routes. Read More
When Nick Sitchon set out to identify a first product for his start-up, S1 Biopharma Inc., the medical school dropout turned entrepreneur chatted with his mother and hit (potential) pay dirt with her very first idea: "Why not develop something for me and my low libido?" Read More
A new collaboration among six of the world's largest translational research centers is designed to strengthen discovery efforts at academic and not-for-profit drug development institutes, ultimately improving the rate at which early stage technologies are advanced into commercial therapeutics. Read More
"For much of the 1900s, we studied neurons" to understand brain function, Philip Haydon told BioWorld Today. "And the reasons were purely technical. . . . We could listen to neurons, and we could talk to them." Neurons communicate electrically, and electrical recording and stimulation techniques made them amenable to studying. But in terms of what goes on in the brain, looking only at neurons is bound to deliver a minority report. Read More
• Stemline Therapeutics Inc., of New York, closed its initial public offering of 3.8 million shares, including the exercise in full of the overallotment option covering 497,647 shares, at a price of $10 per share. Read More
• Antabio, of Lebege, France, said it received a €4.7 million (US$6.4 million) Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery Award to develop small-molecule drugs for the treatment of life-threatening infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Read More
• Shire plc, of Dublin, Ireland, said it reached agreement in principle to resolve the previously disclosed civil investigation into Shire's U.S. sales and marketing practices relating to Adderall XR (mixed amphetamine salts), Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine dimesylate) and Daytrana (methylphenidate transdermal system). Read More
• Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said that complete results from a Phase I trial of its RNAi therapeutic, ALN-VSP have been published. Read More
Tuberculosis infects a third of the global population, and getting those rates down has been a major challenge, in part because the tuberculosis bacterium can hide out in a latent state where it does not divide for long periods of time. Read More
