During a recent conference call by Oppenheimer & Co. to advise investors about what's ahead and point out valuable names in the sector, analyst Hartaj Singh took a high-altitude view, calling this "a weird time" for raising money when compared to trends in previous eras. Read More
HONG KONG – Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. has joined forces with Japan's Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to develop and commercialize Rigel's small molecule inhibitor, Tavalisse (fostamatinib), in Japan, the Chinese mainland, Taiwan and South Korea for all potential indications. Read More
Eli Lilly and Co. Inc. tapped 3-year-old Nextcure Inc. for a multiyear immuno-oncology (I-O) deal designed to exploit the newco's Functional, Integrated, Nextcure Discovery in Immuno Oncology, or FIND-IO, technology. Nextcure, of Beltsville, Md., stands to receive $25 million up front in addition to a $15 million equity stake by Lilly, of Indianapolis. Both participants reserved options to exclusively license antibodies resulting from the arrangement, and Nextcure is eligible for development and commercial milestones and royalty payments if its first pharma partner develops and markets resulting cancer therapies. Read More
COPENHAGEN – A certain online Seattle retailer unexpectedly featured during a BIO-Europe panel discussion Tuesday on transformative deals in the pharma industry. In among the anecdotes and insights about the deals that enabled certain well-known drug assets to get to market – and that may in the future enable certain lesser known assets to follow – Amazon.com's entry into pharmaceutical distribution through its acquisition of the Boston-based online pharmacy Pillpack Inc. sparked some uneasy reflection. Read More
SAN DIEGO – At Neurosciences 2018, researchers highlighted mouse experiments and human biomarker studies further straightening the connection between dementia and the cardiovascular system. Read More
HONG KONG – Taiwanese drugmaker Tairx Inc. partnered with its U.S. peer, Biohealth Innovation Inc. (BHI), to set up a joint venture (JV) in the U.S. with the aim of developing what could be the first drug targeting the Nodal protein in cancer. Read More
A miniature eye patch delivering drugs directly into the eye for safer and more effective treatment of ocular diseases has been reported by researchers at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University in the Nov. 6, 2018, edition of Nature Communications. Read More
Dynavax Technologies Corp., of Berkeley, Calif., reported third-quarter and nine-month sales of hepatitis B vaccine Heplisav-B totaling $1.5 million and $2.9 million, respectively. The drug was launched in the first quarter of this year. Dynavax posted a net loss of $40.5 million, or 65 cents per share, for the quarter. Cash, equivalents and marketable securities totaled $180.2 million as of Sept. 30. Shares of Dynavax (NASDAQ:DVAX) closed Tuesday at $11.65, up 53 cents. (See BioWorld, Nov. 13, 2017.) Read More
Ritter Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Los Angeles, closed its private placement of series B convertible preferred stock and warrants for gross proceeds of about $6 million. Proceeds are expected to fund a phase III trial of RP-G28 for lactose intolerance, which is expected to complete in the second half of 2019. Read More
Genocea Biosciences Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., presented preclinical data at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer meeting in Washington suggesting potential deleterious effects of inhibitory neoantigens because of their association with inhibition of T-cell responses to tumors. Read More
The FDA Tuesday unveiled Mystudies app, a new technology to foster the collection of real-world evidence via patients' mobile devices. The agency is releasing the open source code and technical documents that will allow researchers and drug sponsors to customize and use the app to expand the diversity of health information available for clinical trials and studies, while directly capturing the perspective of patients. Read More
