Only weeks after disclosing its goal of expanding into emerging markets in its 2012-2014 Mid-Range Plan, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. made a move in Brazil with the acquisition of Multilab Industria e Comercio de Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda. for BRL500 million (US$249.9 million) up front and up to BRL40 million in future milestones. Read More
Sangart Inc. added $50 million in additional equity financing through its existing investor, Leucadia National Corp. The funding was made upon exercise of Series G preferred stock warrants held by Leucadia, and brings the total amount raised by the company to $280 million. Read More
WASHINGTON – While the differences between the House and Senate PDUFA bills are seemingly minor, they could add up to hundreds of millions of dollars. Read More
• Summit Corp. plc, of Oxford, UK, dosed the first cohort of patients in a Phase I study of SMT C1100, a small-molecule utrophin up-regulator under investigation in Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD). Read More
• Galena Biopharma Inc., of Lake Oswego, Ore., received a notice of allowance for a composition-of-matter patent related to folate-binding peptide (FBP) variants, alone or combined with the FBP vaccine E39. Read More
• RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Rockville, Md., reported preclinical data showing thymosin beta 4 (TB4) provided both neuroprotection and neurorestoration after traumatic brain injury. A study comparing TB4 with saline administration six hours post-injury in rats significantly improved sensorimotor functional recovery and spatial learning, reduced cortical lesion volume and hippocampal cell loss, and enhanced cell proliferation and neurogenesis in the injured hippocampus. The data were published in the May 2012 edition of the Journal of Neurosurgery. Read More
• Fera Pharmaceuticals, of New York, said the firm will begin shipping methazolamide tablets June 1. The drug has been in short supply in the U.S. Read More
• Pfizer Inc., of New York, said the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Human Medicinal Products recommended marketing authorization for axitinib as a second-line treatment for adults with advanced renal cell carcinoma. Read More
Scientists at SUNY Buffalo have looked at the safety of quantum dots – nanotechnology crystals made up partly of heavy metals such as cadmium and selenium that are being tested for diagnostic purposes as well as light-activated therapies – in a long-term study in primates, and found both good and bad news. Read More
