In its $2 billion acquisition of Bellus Health Inc., GSK plc is getting camlipixant, which is being developed to treat refractory chronic cough. The selective P2X3 receptor antagonist is currently in phase I and phase III studies. Bellus will be acquired by GSK for $14.75 per share in cash. Read More
Providing a much-needed lift to struggling Gamida Cell Ltd., the U.S. FDA has approved the firm’s advanced cell therapy Omisirge (omidubicel-onlv) to reduce the risk of infection in patients with hematologic malignancies aged 12 years and older who are scheduled to have umbilical cord blood transplantation. Read More
Immuneering Corp.’s positive pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and safety phase I data with universal RAS inhibitor IMM-1-104 let the company move up the timeline for a recommended phase II dose from previous guidance of mid-2024 to early next year. Read More
The implosion of Silicon Valley Bank and of the investment bank Credit Suisse has left the current funding backdrop for life sciences “completely unclear” according to Jim Wilkinson, chief financial officer of Oxford Science Enterprises. “I had a cup of coffee yesterday with Credit Suisse, and with Morgan Stanley, and I talked to one of our co-investors who has accessed some cash for us. They all gave me completely different stories,” Wilkinson said. Read More
Pharma groups are calling on Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) to reconsider its current drug pricing policies that include annual price cuts on innovative drugs. Read More
Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd. (SNBL) agreed to acquire Satsuma Pharmaceuticals Inc.as part of a deal worth as much as $220 million that includes rights to the STS-101 migraine drug. Shin Nippon will pay 91 cents in cash per share, as well as a non-tradeable contingent value right worth up to $5.77 per share based on the potential sale, license, or other grant of rights of Satsuma’s migraine drug STS-101. Read More
A research initiative led by Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield of the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, has landed $70 million in funding from the Audacious Project to bring the power and precision of CRISPR-based genome editing to the gut microbiome of humans and animals, in an ambitious effort to engineer complex microbial communities to achieve outcomes that can benefit human health and the environment. Read More
The latest U.S. FDA emergency use authorizations to fall by the wayside, as COVID-19 continues to evolve, are the ones for the first Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE’s mRNA vaccines. Read More
Sanofi SA’s antitrust challenge of Mylan Inc.’s “exclusionary conduct” in the epinephrine auto-injector market met the end of the road April 17 when the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert. Read More
New and updated clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, including: Abclon, Allogene, Avistone, Bold, Cantargia, Convergent, Erasca, Evaxion, Exuma, Imcheck, Immunocore, Innovent, Merck, Moderna. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Astrocyte, Gritstone, GSK, Immutep, Inovio, Kiora, Minervax, Neurosense, Peptilogics, Quralis, Rallybio, Relief, Shionogi, Umecrine, Vaxcyte, Xbiotech. Read More
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Acadia, Alkermes, Altemia, Araris, ARS, Awakn, Coeptis, Daewoong, Deverra, Lobe, Nektar, Neophore, Neuren, Sygnature, Tiziana. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: 2seventy, Abbvie, Affamed, Bristol Myers Squibb, Candel, Hanchorbio, Intelgenx, Lundbeck, Novo Nordisk, Otsuka. Read More
