About four years in the making, Monday's reveal of disappointing top-line data from the phase III study testing vosaroxin plus cytarabine in patients with relapsed refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) sent shares of Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc. tumbling in spectacular fashion. Read More
Actavis plc is purchasing infectious disease specialist Durata Therapeutics Inc. for $23 per share in cash, or approximately $675 million, plus contingent value rights (CVR) of up to $5 per share in additional cash payments linked to regulatory and commercial milestones for Durata's lead product, Dalvance (dalbavancin). Read More
SAN FRANCISCO – While the fall heat wave here peaked Saturday, the sizzle clearly remains. More than 650 attendees are registered for this week's two-day Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Investor Forum in the City by the Bay, lining up a record 1,200 partnering meetings in the wake of a year in which, so far, public and private biotech companies have raised a collective $25 billion. Read More
It's not often that the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine heads south to pick up an award. But that's the case for two of this year's winners, a husband-and-wife team who work at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, just south of the Arctic Circle and well north of Stockholm. Read More
The modified intent to treat (mITT) phase III results with Alcobra Ltd.'s non-stimulant metadoxine extended release (MDX) for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults gave investors the jitters, but they may have been distracted from the real meaning of top-line data by the exclusion of four high responders to placebo. Read More
HONG KONG – Japanese scientists have identified a potent cell signaling mediator that could represent an important universal therapeutic target molecule for the development of effective new treatments for multiple myeloma (MM). Read More
LONDON – In one of the things you seldom see in UK biotech, Acacia Pharma Ltd. has delivered positive phase III results for ADP421 in postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), and embarked on planning the route to commercialization in the U.S. Read More
Savara Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Austin, Texas, said it closed a $10 million bridge financing round to support the development of Aerovanc, the first inhaled antibiotic being developed to address the growing number of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis (CF). Read More
strong>Eisai Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, reported that the French National Authority for Health's Transparency Commission has awarded Zonegran (zonisamide), its treatment of partial seizures, a Medical Benefit level of "important" and an Improvement of Medical Benefit level "V." Read More
Anges MG Inc., of Tokyo, started global phase III trials with Collategene, enrolling the first patients in the U.S. The double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of Collategene in about 500 subjects with critical limb ischemia. Read More
Perosphere Inc., of Danbury, Conn., said it inked a third collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo Inc., of Tokyo, to study PER977, Perosphere's investigational anticoagulant reversal agent, in phase III registration studies with edoxaban, Daiichi's oral, once-daily, direct factor Xa-inhibitor. Read More
