AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc. licensed exclusive worldwide development and commercialization rights to the company's preclinical antibodies targeting the RON (Recepteur d'Origine Nantais) receptor to Centocor Ortho Biotech Inc., of Horsham, Pa., a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, for $15 million up front, as much as $540 million in milestones and double-digit royalties on worldwide net sales. Read More
After a three-day weekend to digest the news of Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s approval for macrolide antibiotic Dificid (fidaxomicin), investors jumped on the San Diego-based firm's stock (NASDAQ:OPTR) Tuesday, which, trading at seven times its average volume, gained $1.53, or 11.8 percent, to close at $14.51. Read More
Facebook is forcing biotechs to get out of the neighborhood or get more friendly – a move that could set drug companies up for a potential run-in with the regulatory police. Read More
Shares of Affymax Inc. have yet to recover from the beating they took about a year ago when Phase III data for peginesatide (formerly Hematide) fell short of investor expectations, but that hasn't stopped the Palo Alto, Calif.-based biotech and partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. from moving forward with a new drug application (NDA). Read More
Excelimmune Inc., of Woburn, Mass., closed a Series B financing worth $10.5 million to advance its antibiotic candidate Staphguard. The drug is a human recombinant polyclonal antibody designed to target methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The funds will also be used to improve the company's discovery platform and finish proof-of-principle work on its manufacturing system. Read More
Omeros Corp., of Seattle, reported it has identified compounds that interact with orphan G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) GPR27 and GPR173, which together with GPR85, an orphan that Omeros previously unlocked, form the Super Conserved Receptor Expressed in Brain (SREB) family, a unique and evolutionarily conserved family of orphan GPCRs thought to be critical in regulating neural integrity. Read More
Vivus Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., presented several posters at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, Turkey, including data that showed Qnexa (phentermine/topiramate) reduced progression to Type II diabetes and improved glycemic status in patients defined as prediabetics at baseline. In the prediabetic population from the CONQUER study, significantly more Qnexa-treated patients achieved normal blood sugar levels (p = 0.0016) and significantly more patients in the placebo arm progressed to Type II diabetes (p = 0.0253). Qnexa was rejected by the FDA last year, but Vivus plans to resubmit a new drug application in the fourth quarter of this year. Read More
