A backlog of generic drug applications is not to blame for escalating drug prices that have become standard fare for presidential campaigns and congressional hearings over the past few months. Read More
Unrest sowed by Incyte Corp.'s futility-driven stoppage of a phase II substudy testing Jakafi (ruxolitinib) and Stivarga (regorafenib, Bayer AG) against metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) helped drive company shares (NASDAQ:INCY) down 9.6 percent on Thursday, closing at $67.81, as analysts pondered the implications for a phase III test of Jakafi in metastatic pancreatic cancer that is expected to yield results this year. Read More
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s fourth quarter earnings boasted few surprises – the company had already given investors a taste at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference earlier this month – but that didn't stop the Wednesday evening earnings call from running well over an hour as analysts persisted in teasing out management predictions for uptake of cystic fibrosis (CF) drug Orkambi. Read More
Growing up in Jordan, where her mother ran the large University of Jordan Hospital, M3 Biotechnology Inc. President, CEO and co-founder Leen Kawas was ready to lead. She just didn't know it yet. Read More
Adagene Inc., of Suzhou, China, closed a $28 million series B financing led by GP Healthcare Capital, with participation from new investor New World TMT and current investors Eight Roads Ventures China (formerly Fidelity Growth Partners Asia), F-Prime Capital (formerly Fidelity Biosciences) and Wuxi Corporate Venture Fund. Read More
Sinovac Biotech Ltd., of Beijing, said the CFDA issued the good manufacturing practices certificate for the company's enterovirus 71 vaccine, marking the final step of approval prior to commercial production. Sinovac expects to deliver the vaccine to the market prior to the end of the second quarter. The designed annual production capacity is 20 million doses. Enterovirus 71 is the virus that causes hand, foot and mouth disease. Read More
Tracon Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, started a two-cohort trial consisting of a phase II study evaluating the combination of TRC102 and Alimta (pemetrexed, Eli Lilly and Co.) in patients with mesothelioma and a phase Ib study evaluating the combination of TRC102, Alimta and cisplatin in patients with solid tumors. Read More
