At the end of the day, does it really matter whether the Federal Circuit takes a fresh look at the construction of patent claims or defers to a lower court's interpretation of issues of fact? Read More
Selecta Biosciences Inc. Wednesday said it raised more than $20 million in equity funding from new and existing investors to advance its lead program, the severe gout drug SEL-212, and its early stage pipeline of antigen-specific immune therapies. Read More
SHANGHAI – Leading prescription generics maker with an up-and-coming pipeline of new chemical entities and former military research unit, Beijing Sihuan Pharmaceutical, has entered the race to find a treatment to cure the deadly Ebola virus. Read More
LONDON – Seventeen years of research into the intricacies of the transcription factor NF-κB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain enhancer of activated B-cells) has culminated in the formation of Kesios Ltd., which has £5.75 million (US$9.2 million) initial funding to deliver human data validating a highly specific cancer target on the NF-κB pathway. Read More
SHANGHAI – A Chinese vaccine joint venture (JV), Bravovax Co. Ltd., of Wuhan, has taken on the global rights for a rotavirus vaccine to be administered to newborn infants – the first of its kind to protect infants at birth from potentially life threatening diarrhea leading to severe dehydration. Read More
Everything old is new again for Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc., which hit the ground running with a $13 million private raise that included Perceptive Advisors LLC and undisclosed high net worth individual investors. Proceeds from the round will be used to develop the Radnor, Pa.-based company's transdermal cannabinoid therapies, believed to be the first of their kind. Read More
Pentamer Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Chicago, began a crowdfunding campaign for the development of its Ebola vaccine. The firm has developed a vaccine technology called Nodavax that has produced protective vaccines against other pathogens like anthrax. Read More
Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc., of Bethesda, Md., said the Dcvax-L hospital exemption program approved by German regulators earlier this year is under way, with the first patient with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) having begun treatment. Read More
Zachary Zwerko, a former senior financial analyst at Merck & Co. Inc., faces civil and criminal charges of insider trading. In its civil case against Zwerko, the SEC alleged that he repeatedly accessed confidential files about his employer's potential acquisitions and passed details on to a college friend who then purchased securities prior to public announcements. Read More
Contravir Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Edison, N.J., closed a private placement of series A convertible preferred shares to an undisclosed ex-U.S. investor for gross proceeds of $9 million. The preferred shares may be converted at any time into common shares at a rate of 48 cents apiece, but Contravir said the investor agreed to lock up the preferred and underlying common shares until April 14, 2016. Read More
Eisai Inc., of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., said the FDA accepted its new drug application for lenvatinib mesylate to treat progressive radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer and granted priority review. Read More
