Less than a year into their drug development partnership, privately held Edison Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Japan’s Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co. Ltd. (DSP) bulked up the deal, inking a potential $4.295 billion strategic alliance that vastly expands their pursuit of drugs targeting cellular energy metabolism. Read More
Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s sales force for Hetlioz (tasimelteon) is “intact and in launch mode,” said CEO Mihael Polymeropoulos, after Friday’s approval of the selective melatonin receptor agonist for non-24-hour wake-sleep disorder (non-24). Read More
Throw the predictions out of the window. Any thoughts that the number of biotech initial public offerings (IPO) would slow down anytime soon will surely be dispelled with the successful completion of five offerings. Cara Therapeutics Inc., Trevena Inc. and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. have followed Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Celladon Corp., which priced their IPOs Thursday. Read More
Scientists reported recently that a therapeutic vaccine for precancerous cervical lesions induced strong immune responses. But those immune responses were only apparent when the team analyzed the cervical tissue itself, not when they used the standard approach of looking for activated immune cells in the blood. Read More
With an eye toward launching a Phase III program in schizophrenia later this year, Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc. priced a $107.5 million public offering after market close Thursday, selling about 6.1 million shares priced at $17.50 apiece. Read More
Enanta Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Watertown, Mass., reported results from the PEARL-II, PEARL-III, PEARL-IV and TURQUOISE-II studies, which are the remaining Phase III studies of the six Phase III registrational studies being conducted by Chicago-based Abbvie Inc. for the treatment of genotype 1 (GT1) hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection using a regimen containing Enanta’s lead protease inhibitor ABT-450. Read More
Researchers from the University of Minnesota have demonstrated that even in patients with undetectable levels of HIV in their blood – which is the goal and the usual consequence of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) – the virus persists in replicating in the lymph system. Read More
