Merck & Co. Inc. acquired Calporta Therapeutics Inc. for an up-front payment and milestone payments that could total $576 million. Calporta is a build-to-buy spinout of La Jolla, Calif.-based COI Pharmaceuticals Inc. Calporta develops selective small-molecule agonists to TRPML1, foremost in the mammalian mucolipin TRP channel subfamily. Read More
Therapix Biosciences Ltd., of Tel Aviv, Israel, said top-line results of a small single-arm, phase IIa study of its combination of dronabinol (delta-9-tetrahydracannabinol) and Cannamide (palmitoylethanolamide), THX-110, showed a positive effect on symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a serious sleep disorder. Read More
PERTH, Australia – Melbourne-headquartered regenerative medicine company Avita Medical Ltd. raised AU$120 million (US$81 million) in an institutional placement that will fund pipeline development of new indications for its Recell spray-on-skin treatment and expand its commercial footprint in the U.S. and Japan. Read More
Avidity Biosciences Inc. CEO Sarah Boyce told BioWorld it's "a little too soon" to say when the company's lead program in myotonic dystrophy type I might reach the clinic, but the firm's $100 million series C financing will help with that effort and the portfolio in rare muscle diseases, as the antibody-oligonucleotide conjugate (AOC) platform undergoes further development. Read More
HAMBURG, Germany – Monoclonal antibodies and their various derivatives now represent the biotechnology industry's dominant, incumbent technology. Six of the top 10 best-selling drugs are antibodies. Two more top 10 drugs are biologics based on fusion protein designs. In all, there are around a hundred antibodies on the market. Whether cell and gene therapy (CAGT) will ever attain that level of success was the subject of two lively panel discussions – on deal trends and valuation and on collaboration and integrated development of advanced therapies – which closed the 25th anniversary edition of BIO-Europe Wednesday. Read More
BOSTON – Researchers presented data at The Liver Meeting 2019 and in Nature this week demonstrating that bacteriophages targeted to specific members of the microbiome could be useful in fighting two different liver diseases. Read More
SHANGHAI – Now is the time for foreign pharmaceutical companies to include China in their strategies, as the country's recent regulatory reform, vast patient pool and lower costs represent opportunities to score approvals faster, said experts at the Chinatrials12 Summit. Read More
HONG KONG – Singaporean drugmaker Aslan Pharmaceuticals Ltd. announced top-line data from its pivotal phase III TreeTopp (treatment opportunity with varlitinib (ASLAN-001) in biliary tract cancer) study in second-line biliary tract cancer patients, which failed to meet co-primary endpoints of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall response rate (ORR). Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations. Read More
