Bioinvent International AB, of Lund, Sweden, said it gained access to technology making highly efficacious immune stimulatory antibodies to combat cancer. Read More
Kite Pharma Inc., of Santa Monica, Calif., priced an underwritten public offering of about 3.6 million shares of its common stock at $69 per share. Gross proceeds are expected to be about $250.1 million. Read More
After leading 10 of its portfolio companies to exit in the past three years for a total enterprise value of almost €3 billion, European venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners is now armed with a new €300 million (US$328.7 million) fund to support a new stream of early stage companies. The firm blew past its initial fund target of €250 million and now has a total of €1.5 billion under management. Read More
Implementing pathways to encourage competition and placing government regulation on generic drugs that lack competition were two suggestions offered during this week's Senate Special Committee on Aging to tackle a recent spate of off-patent drug hikes epitomized by Turing Pharmaceuticals Inc., which raised the price on a 62-year-old drug by nearly 5,500 percent and limited its access to specialty pharmacies. Read More
HONG KONG – A small molecule has been shown to be capable of breaking down amyloid beta deposits in a study of the brains of mice exhibiting the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD), an important finding that may lead to the development of new treatments for the different stages of AD, according to the results of a study by Korean researchers. Read More
Kallyope Inc., a New York-based biotech company focused on developing a platform to influence the brain via the gut, has secured its first investment, a $44 million series A financing to explore the untapped therapeutic and nutritional potential of the bidirectional communication channel. From its lab, overlooking the Empire State Building, it expects to develop its own therapeutic programs in parallel with a platform for translating gut-brain biology into a range of new therapeutic and nutritional programs. But it is "not interested in therapeutics that are just incremental," CEO Nancy Thornberry, a veteran of Merck & Co. Inc., told BioWorld Today. Read More
BOGOTA, Colombia – Mexico became the first country in the world this week to approve a Sanofi Pasteur vaccine for dengue, a product that has been in development for two decades. Read More
Relmada Therapeutics Inc., of New York, reported top-line results from a proof-of-concept pharmacokinetic study in healthy volunteers using Butab (REL-1028), an investigational, oral formulation of buprenorphine. Read More
