Futility findings by the data safety monitoring board from the phase II ALPINE pancreatic cancer trial with anti-Notch 2/3 therapy tarextumab cast into doubt the predictive value of phase Ib studies with similar Notch-targeting candidates, and Oncomed Pharmaceuticals Inc. Read More

LONDON – Forces are starting to be marshaled against the Zika virus, with researchers calling for the experience of the Ebola crisis to be applied in expediting clinical trials of potential treatments and diagnostic tests for the newly rampant virus. Read More

HONG KONG – Japanese researchers have discovered that increased heterodimerization between angiotensin type 1 (AT1) receptors and purinergic P2Y6 receptors with age promotes hypertension induced by angiotensin II (ATII), and compounds that disrupt heterodimerization may be attractive new drug candidates to treat hypertension. Read More

LONDON – Three top pharma companies are joining together to establish a £40 million (US$57.1 million) fund to back the early stage commercialization of research from three of the U.K.'s leading universities. Read More

The Supreme Court Monday closed down the Ninth Circuit's efforts to rewrite a putative class-action suit involving an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), sending the appellate court a unanimous, succinct message: It can't make a case the stockholders didn't claim. Read More

Medivation Inc. hit a little snag on the way to its pivotal phase II study testing supposed PD-1 inhibitor MDV9300 (pidilizumab) in relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) when the company concluded the drug does not actually inhibit PD-1 after all. Read More

Executives at Oasmia Pharmaceutical AB came to the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPM) recently confident they had every chance of perking up investor interest in their story. Read More

Mapi-Pharma Ltd., of Ness Ziona, Israel, has filed an amended form F-1 with the SEC for an IPO of 3.125 million shares that are expected to price between $15 and $17 per share. Read More

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of New York, said the FDA approved anti-PD-1 drug Opdivo (nivolumab) in combination with Yervoy (ipilimumab) for the treatment of patients with BRAFV600 wild-type and BRAF V600 mutation-positive unresectable or metastatic melanoma, under the agency's accelerated approval pathway based on progression-free survival data. Continued approval may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials. Read More

Encore Vision Inc., of Fort Worth, Texas, said that the FDA has approved its investigational new drug application for EV06, a topical ophthalmic solution to treat presbyopia, and that the company has since enrolled the first subject into their phase I/II trial of the lipoic acid choline ester compound. Read More