After a bleak third quarter, during which venture investments in biotech dropped 12 percent from last year, the sector was due for some good news: Sofinnova Ventures stepped up, closing an oversubscribed $440 million fund to invest in life sciences. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 5, 2011.) Read More
Disappointing top-line results from a third Phase III trial of Depomed Inc.'s Serada cast a shadow on the drug's prospects with the FDA. The trial studied frequency and severity of hot flash episodes in menopausal women after four weeks, 12 weeks and 24 weeks. Read More
WASHINGTON – More ways to cut prescription drug costs were added to the stack of proposals to trim government spending last week as the clock ticked down on the Friday deadline for congressional committees to submit recommendations to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Read More
Shares in Emisphere Technologies Inc. dropped sharply following the Cedar Knolls, N.J.-based firm's announcement that it was informed by partner Novartis Pharma AG that the first interpretable results of a second Phase III study of oral calcitonin in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee missed co-primary and secondary endpoints. Read More
Urigen Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Walnut Creek, Calif., said it received $300,000 in a financing transaction in the form of two-year convertible notes. Proceeds will be used primarily for general corporate purposes, including supporting the activities required to bring the company into compliance with SEC reporting requirements and to advance development of lead program URG101, in interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome. Read More
MediciNova Inc., of San Diego, will receive $2.5 million from Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, within 30 days for the development of MN-221, its drug for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. MediciNova is developing the drug under a 2004 license agreement with Kissei Read More
Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Irvine, Calif., received a notice of allowance for a patent protecting the use of Ampakine molecules for treating or preventing respiratory depression. Read More
An international team led by scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge has managed to derive induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from a patient with a deficiency in enzyme alpha-1-antitrypsin, which leads to both lung emphysema and liver cirrhosis. Read More
