Lung cancer remains one of the deadliest cancers – it kills more people than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined. And while it is clearly not an equal opportunity killer, it also strikes a depressing number of former smokers – and a surprising number of nonsmokers. Read More
It's officially spring, and we made it past April Fool's Day still intact. News from the Middle East and the Pacific Rim is scary, but the stock market has had its best quarter in a while. So how did it work out for private biotech firms last quarter, and what might lie ahead? (BioWorld Perspectives) Read More
Tranzyme Inc. priced an initial public offering (IPO) to raise $54 million to support its pipeline of drugs for gastrointestinal motility disorders. The offering price of $4 per share is one-third its original target of $11 to $13. Read More
Plexxikon Inc., of Berkeley, Calif., said its acquisition by Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, was completed. Under the terms of the deal, Plexxikon shareholders will receive $805 million up front, with near-term milestones associated with approval of melanoma drug PLX4032 totaling an additional $130 million. Read More
Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., presented data from a four-week Phase I trial of IMO-2125 in combination with ribavirin in treatment-naïve hepatitis C virus genotype 1 patients, which showed that the combination was well tolerated and produced clinically meaningful antiviral activity. The drug at all dose levels induced declines in viral levels at 48 hours after the first dose, and the mean viral load reductions at 48 hours after the first dose was 2.5 log10, 1.3 log10 and 1.6 log10 for the 0.16 mg/kg once-weekly dose, the 0.32 mg/kg once-weekly dose and the 0.16 mg/kg twice-weekly dose, respectively. Read More
Cardiovascular data presented for obesity candidates Qnexa (phentermine/topiramate) and Contrave (naltrexone/bupropion) at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting in New Orleans might have boosted shares of Vivus Inc. and Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. Monday, but those results are unlikely to ease the path to approval for either drug. Read More
WASHINGTON – Instead of making all DNA patents vanish or asking judges to pull rabbits out of their hats every time they have to rule on genomic patents, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recommended they use a "magic microscope" as the legal patent test for clarifying when genetic material is a product of nature. Read More
Stealth Peptides Inc., of Boston, reported results of a Phase I study in healthy volunteers of Bendavia, a compound that targets the mitochondrion to treat ischemia reperfusion injury. Volunteers received a single dose of Bendavia administered as an intravenous infusion over an extended period. Bendavia appears to be safe and well tolerated at the dose evaluated, with no serious adverse events reported. Read More
