Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s eleventh-hour settlement with Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. leaves Alnylam $65 million lighter but still in strong financial shape, without losing rights to access the Lipid NanoParticle (LNP) delivery technology important for its RNAi work. Read More
Pearl Therapeutics Inc.'s consortium of investors returned for a Series D financing round worth $65 million. The funds, provided by lead investor Vatera Capital, along with 5AM Ventures, Clarus Ventures and New Leaf Venture Partners, will support Phase III studies of Pearl's candidate for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), PT003. Read More
By chemically linking two hormones that affect metabolism, scientists have managed to "turbocharge" the effects of one while getting rid of the toxicities that have plagued the other. Read More
Privately held Colby Pharmaceutical Co. continued a wave of wheeling and dealing by paying up to $140 million in up-front and milestone payments to MannKind Corp. for disease-specific antigen compounds and intra-lymph node injection (INLI) technologies from its MKC1106 cancer vaccine program. Read More
• Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd., of Petach, Israel, said it designated CF603, an A3 adenosine receptor allosteric modulator licensed from Leiden University, to be developed for the treatment of sexual dysfunction. Recent studies showed that adenosine functions to relax the corpus cavernosum and promote penile erection. Read More
• ImmuneWorks Inc., of Indianapolis, said it completed a Phase I trial of Type V Collagen oral solution (IW001) in patients suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Thirty patients were enrolled in the 24-week study, which showed the drug to be well tolerated in preliminary results, with effects on lung function. Read More
• Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, and BaroFold Inc., of Aurora, Colo., said they entered a nonexclusive technology and commercial license option agreement, in which Boehringer will acquire a laboratory-scale reactor of BaroFold's Pressure Enabled Manufacturing Technology (PreEMT) that can also be qualified for GMP use. Read More
• Bayer Inc., of Deerfield, Ill., and the Population Health Research Institute said they started the COMPASS trial, the largest clinical study to date of oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban. Read More
