AstraZeneca plc's top-line results from a Phase IIb study of fostamatinib in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) showed that the drug was superior to placebo at six weeks, but it fell short of a secondary goal of noninferiority against Humira (adalimumab, Abbott), sending shares of partner Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc., of South San Francisco, plunging by almost 35 percent. Read More
Stock buyers hardly cared that Oncolytics Biotech Inc.'s early Phase III results with Reolysin, its reovirus variant for head and neck cancer, lacked survival data and slipped on part of its endpoint – the rest was just too good. Read More
Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London published Tuesday details of the Phase III trial of Johnson & Johnson's prostate cancer drug Zytiga (abiraterone acetate) in men who had not received chemotherapy, a day after the FDA agreed to a label extension allowing the drug to be used at that earlier stage of the disease. Read More
• Genmab A/S, of Copenhagen, Denmark, said it reached the third preclinical milestone in its collaboration with H. Lundbeck A/S, also of Copenhagen, triggering a €1 million (US$1.3 million) payment. Read More
• Eisai Inc., of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., entered an agreement with the University College London (UCL) to establish a drug discovery and development collaboration. Read More
• Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Malvern, Pa., disclosed top-line 30-day data for collagenase clostridium histolyticum for the potential treatment of adult patients with edematous fibrosclerotic panniculopathy, commonly known as cellulite. Read More
