"Get your act together or else ..." was the message Republican and Democrat alike delivered Wednesday to drug companies, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) during a House subcommittee hearing on the prescription drug supply chain and its impact on drug prices. Read More

With $62 million in series B cash, Pionyr Immunotherapeutics Inc. hopes to "get initial human readouts in a couple of programs – at least one, maybe a second," CEO Steven James told BioWorld. The San Francisco-based company is advancing its Myeloid Tuning technology, which rebalances the tumor microenvironment, an effort that could work especially well with checkpoint inhibitors. Read More

DUBLIN – Two years after a failed effort to develop the cannabinoid product Sativex (nabiximols) as a therapy for cancer pain in the U.S., GW Pharmaceuticals plc and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. are finally terminating an alliance that dates back more than a decade. Read More

Allakos Inc., which has deflected questions about its technology since its 2012 founding, continued to let its fundraising prowess do the talking after completing a $100 million series B to advance AK-002, a therapeutic antibody the company called its lead program, in disease areas ranging from gastrointestinal (GI) to dermatologic and ocular diseases. Read More

Fennec Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., completed its previously disclosed underwritten public offering of about 2.3 million common shares at $8.50 each. The firm also issued an additional 135,670 common shares in connection with the partial exercise of the underwriters' overallotment option. The total gross proceeds from the offering (before deducting the underwriting discounts and offering expenses) was about $21.1 million. Wedbush Pacgrow acted as the sole book-running manager for the offering. H.C. Wainwright & Co. served as the co-manager. Read More

Xcell Biologix, of Kennesaw, Georgia, said it entered an exclusive worldwide license agreement with the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, part of Wake Forest School of Medicine, for development and commercialization of its amnion-derived product candidates that accelerate wound closure and reepithelialization for the protection, healing and repair of chronic wounds and severe burns. Terms were not disclosed. Read More

Mabvax Therapeutics Holdings Inc., of San Diego, completed enrollment and dosing in the initial cohort of a phase I trial testing its antibody-based radioimmunotherapy, MVT-1075, for the treatment of pancreatic, colon and lung cancers. The trial is designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose and safety profile of MVT-1075, but the trial will also measure tumor response rate and duration of response by RECIST 1.1, and determine dosimetry and pharmacokinetics. Interim data are expected in the first quarter of 2018. Read More