Two weeks before the start of the 36th annual J.P. Morgan (JPM) Healthcare Conference, the annual gauge of life sciences investor sentiment, organizers caused a firestorm with their decision to bar media from the breakout sessions that follow canned presentations by 480 public and private companies over the four-day meeting. Read More
LONDON – Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is to acquire cell therapy specialist Tigenix NV in a deal valued at €520 million (US$626.7 million), giving the Japanese pharma full ownership of Alofisel, an off-the-shelf allogeneic therapy for anal fistulas that was recommended for European marketing approval in December. Read More
Gossamer Bio Inc., a new company looking to leverage what it called "an asset-rich in-licensing environment," has raised $100 million from Arch Venture Partners and Omega Funds to rev up operations, advance trials for its early and late-stage candidates, and further augment its pipeline. Read More
DUBLIN – The European biotechnology sector enjoyed a period of sustained investor appetite in 2017, reflecting its ongoing ability to tap into global equity markets in order to fund development of its pipeline. Total investment reached $6.85 billion in disclosed transactions involving drug development firms. Read More
Wedbush Securities analyst Liana Moussatos called top-line results from two trials by Kala Pharmaceuticals Inc. "the best phase III dry eye data that I've seen," though not everyone seemed as enthusiastic about the outcomes with KPI-121 0.25 percent vs. placebo, a therapy that uses Kala's mucus-penetrating particle (MPP) technology to enhance delivery of loteprednol etabonate into target tissue of the eye. Read More
HONG KONG – As one of the traditional pharmaceutical companies looking at innovative technologies to fuel its business in a country considering price caps for drugs, Japan's Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co. Ltd. has established a new laboratory to further expand efforts in the biopharmaceutical and genomics field. Read More
Novan Inc., of Morrisville, N.C., priced a public offering of 10 million shares of common stock and accompanying warrants to purchase up to 10 million shares at a public offering price of $3.80 apiece for gross proceeds of $38 million. Piper Jaffray & Co. is acting as the sole book-running manager for the offering, set to close on or about Jan.9. Read More
Immix Biopharma Inc., of Los Angeles, said it received human research ethics approval to begin a phase I/IIa, open-label, dose-escalation, dose-expansion safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic study of IMX-100 in patients with advanced solid tumors. Read More
Treating mice with tungsten salt could reduce the numbers of Enterobacteriaceae specifically under the anaerobic conditions that are typical of inflammation, and reduced the symptoms of mice with colitis. Read More
