Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc is buying Chimerix Inc. for $8.55 a share in cash, bringing the deal in at about $935 million. Jazz expands its cancer pipeline with the new acquisition’s lead candidate, dordaviprone, a small molecule for treating a rare, aggressive glioma that’s often found in children and young adults. Read More
The march toward better drugs in Parkinson’s disease suffered a setback as Irlab Therapeutics AB rolled out top-line results from the phase IIb study with pirepemat called React-PD. Read More
Persica Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has delivered positive 12-month follow-up data from its phase Ib study of PP-353, an injectable antibiotic for treating chronic lower back pain, and is now looking for a partner and further financing to take the product into phase III development. Read More
Rusfertide could become a blockbuster therapy for polycythemia vera, H.C. Wainwright analyst Douglas Tsao wrote March 4 after the injectable hepcidin mimetic peptide hit its primary endpoint and all four key secondary endpoints in the ongoing phase III Verify study. Read More
Trimtech Therapeutics closed a £25 million (US$31 million) oversubscribed seed funding round to advance its targeted protein degradation treatments for neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases. Read More
Jay Bhattacharya will have his work cut out for him if he wins confirmation as the next director of the U.S. NIH. Besides getting NIH committees back on track to evaluate grant applications and calming the fears of researchers and other staff who have seen about 1,200 colleagues cut from their ranks in recent weeks, Bhattacharya will face the task of rebuilding public trust in the NIH itself. Read More
Sofinnova Partners raised a whopping €1.2 billion (US$1.26 billion) over the past year to invest in life sciences companies ranging from incubation to later-stage growth, and spanning biotech, med tech, industrial biotech and digital medicine. Read More
In an advance that could significantly lighten the load for caretakers in the “sandwich generation” and reduce loneliness in elderly patients, Aspargo Labs Inc. developed a metered delivery device that optimizes absorption of pharmaceuticals and reminds users to take their medications. Read More
New hires and promotions in the biopharma industry, including: Dianthus, Hutchmed, Johnson & Johnson, KSQ, MBX, Nanonewron, Nanoscope, Orbis. Read More
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Acelyrin, Alumis, Attmos, Bristol Myers Squibb, Concentra, Centauri, Evotec, Ideaya, Nippon Shinyaku, Regenxbio. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Amneal, Axsome, Beigene, Biogen, Capricor, Celltrion, Corcept, Genentech, Neurenati, Seres. Read More
