Horizon plc is picking up Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp. in an all-cash deal, acquiring outstanding shares of the Novato, Calif.-based company for $9 apiece to value the transaction at approximately $800 million. Read More
Alize Pharma III SAS, of Lyon, France, an Alize Pharma group company, is presenting preclinical data at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research meeting in Atlanta later this month showing that I-HBC1 increased bone mass in ovariectomized rats, a model of postmenopausal osteoporosis, and was more potent than parathyroid hormone. Read More
Versartis Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., said the safety profile of somavaratan (VRS-317), a long-acting form of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), for pediatric growth hormone deficiency, has been maintained with 30 months of treatment in the VISTA study, which followed the phase IIa clinical trial. Read More
Shares of Geron Corp. hit a 52-week low Monday as investors found an interim update on the phase II program of telomerase inhibitor imetelstat less than encouraging. Read More
The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced that the 2016 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award was shared by William Kaelin of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Peter Ratcliffe of the University of Oxford's Francis Crick Institute, and Gregg Semenza of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine "for the discovery of the pathway by which cells from humans and most animals sense and adapt to changes in oxygen availability." Read More
Celgene Corp. offered tantalizing morsels from its phase Ib study of oral GED-0301 (mongersen) in patients with active Crohn's disease, but the tidbits only prompted speculation about the bigger picture behind the curtain of silence. Interim top-line data from the randomized, double-blind, multicenter, exploratory study showed endoscopic improvement (defined as a 25 percent improvement from baseline) "in a proportion of patients treated with oral GED-0301," according to the company, along with clinical response and remission across all treatment groups at week 12. Read More
In penning a response to one of its U.S. Senate critics, Mylan NV underscored the $1 billion it has spent over the past eight years to make people more aware of the risk of anaphylaxis and their need for drug-device products like the company's Epipen auto-injector, which happens to have the U.S. market for emergency treatment of life-threatening allergic reactions pretty much to itself right now. Read More
SHANGHAI – China's regulatory authorities have given Beigene Co. Ltd., the green light to study BGB-A317, a fully human PD-1 antibody, on patients in China. But this is not the first time BGB-A317 will be tested in a phase I trial. Read More
Promis Neurosciences Inc., of Toronto, said it completed a second and final tranche of its non-brokered private placement by issuing approximately 3.88 million units at 13.5 cents apiece for gross proceeds of C$523,943 (US$401,759). Read More
