DUBLIN – Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. edged closer to a deal to acquire Shire plc, with a revised cash-and-shares offer that values the Dublin-based firm at £49 per share or about £46 billion (US$64.2 billion). The offer comprises £21.75 in cash plus £27.26 in Takeda stock, the equivalent of about £20.4 billion in cash plus £25.6 billion in Takeda stock. If they accept the offer, Shire shareholders would hold about 50 percent of the enlarged company's equity, in addition to getting the up-front cash. Read More
Following an initial FDA rejection in 2013, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s tolvaptan, a drug for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), has now won the agency's approval. The decision will give U.S. adults with the condition — the fourth leading cause of end-stage renal disease — access to a drug that has been available to those with ADPKD in Japan since 2014. Read More
Astrazeneca plc spinout Corvidia Therapeutics Inc.'s $60 million in series B money should let the company "expand into earlier stages of chronic kidney disease [CKD] and apply our scientific approach further into areas of heart failure," CEO Marc de Garidel told BioWorld, adding that the company is "investing to further build our pipeline assets and accelerate some of these therapies into clinical trials." Read More
HONG KONG – Emerging biotech companies can start submitting their formal listing applications in Hong Kong next month as the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX) said that proposed new rules to broaden its listing regime will come into effect on April 30. Read More
Rather than accepting his year-end 2017 ease into retirement by Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., Martin Mackay is adding another page to his storied biopharma career as one of the trio of co-founders at startup Rallybio LLC. The Farmington, Conn.-based company, which landed a $37 million series A to target rare disease therapies, was "born out of lots of failures and mistakes in the past," said Mackay, who serves as executive leader. "Fortunately, along the way we were able to develop some good medicines, and we hope to bring that experience to bear in a positive way." Read More
SAN DIEGO – Collectively, G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a treasure trove of drug targets. Somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of FDA-approved therapeutics are thought to work by targeting GPCRs. Read More
The U.S. Congress already has thrown money at the opioid crisis – to the tune of $4.6 billion in the omnibus spending bill that passed last month. Now it's piecing together a package to use that funding to create an environment that will allow the nation to succeed against the epidemic community by community. Read More
PERTH, Australia – Following its IPO on Australia's Securities Exchange in November, Aussie radiopharma company Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has been building up global partnerships to prepare for a commercial build-up of its "theranostic" radiopharmaceuticals. Read More
Polarityte Inc., of Salt Lake City, regained compliance with Nasdaq listing rules with the appointment of a new independent director, Willie Bogan. Bogan served as associate general counsel and corporate secretary of San Francisco-based Mckesson Corp. until his retirement in November 2015. Read More
Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif., reported revenue of $5.6 billion in the first quarter, bolstered by new and recently launched products, including cholesterol reducer Repatha (evolocumab), multiple myeloma treatment Kyprolis (carfilzomib), osteoporosis drug Prolia (denosumab) and bone metastasis drug Xgeva (denosumab), which all produced double-digit growth. Read More
Morphosys AG, of Planegg, Germany, closed its IPO of 2.075 million shares in the form of 8.3 million American depository shares (ADS) at $25.04 per ADS. Read More
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a precedential decision Wednesday affirming a lower court's ruling that Merck & Co. Inc., of Kenilworth, N.J., had "unclean hands" in litigating patent infringement claims against Gilead Sciences Inc., of Foster City, Calif. Read More
