Antibiotic drug developer Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., joined recent publicly listed antibiotic-focused biotechnology companies Trius Therapeutics Inc. (2010) and Cempra Inc. (2012) by pricing its initial public offering (IPO) Wednesday. The company also achieved its objective of raising $75 million. Read More
Amgen Inc.'s $1 billion buyout in 2011 of BioVex Group Inc., which brought aboard the melanoma therapy then known as OncoVex, may be paying off, but analysts are waiting for overall survival (OS) Phase III data before they start jumping up and down about the compound, now called talimogene laherparepvec, or T-VEC. Read More
Researchers have developed a new drug that fights the malaria parasite at multiple stages in its life cycle, and in both of its hosts – the human and the mosquito – raising hopes that if the compound makes it through clinical development, it could ultimately hound the parasite out of existence. Read More
The FDA raised another safety flag over the continued off-label use of Avastin Wednesday when it issued a MedWatch alerting physicians of a recall of the compounded cancer drug intended as an unapproved treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). While that's bad news for compounders, it could be good news for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Tarrytown, N.Y. Read More
• Cardiome Pharma Corp., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis and Co. published reports recommending that Cardiome shareholders support a share consolidation resolution. Read More
• BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., of San Rafael, Calif., reported results from a Phase I/II trial, dubbed POM-001, testing BMN-701, a fusion protein of insulin-like growth factor-2 and acid alpha-glucosidase, for late-onset Pompe disease. Read More
• Cancer Research Technology, the commercial arm of Cancer Research UK, and the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said they were collaborating with Janssen Biotech Inc., a unit of New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson, to discover a potential new multiple myeloma drug. Read More
• Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem, and H. Lundbeck A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, said the ANDANTE (Add oN to Dopamine AgoNists in the TrEatment of Parkinson's disease), testing Azilect (rasagiline tablets) as an add-on treatment to dopamine agonists compared to placebo met its primary endpoint. Read More
