Portfolio companies news

04 September 2014

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Announces Fourth Patent Allowance in the U.S. Related To Proprietary Microneedle Drug Delivery Methods and Devices

Clearside Biomedical, Inc., announces the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted U.S. Patent Application No. 13/447,246 as U.S. Patent No. 8,808,225 in a patent titled, "Methods and Devices for Drug Delivery to Ocular Tissue Using Microneedle." This is the fourth patent allowance in the U.S. related to its proprietary microneedle drug delivery methods and devices.

01 September 2014

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Completes $16 Million Series B Financing

Clearside Biomedical, Inc., today announced the closing of a $16 million Series B financing. The financing included new investor RusnanoMedInvest (RMI) and existing investors Hatteras Venture Partners, Santen Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Mountain Group Capital and Georgia Research Alliance Venture Fund.

26 August 2014

Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to Ring the Opening Bell of the NASDAQ Stock Market

Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:MRNS), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative neuropsychiatric therapeutics, today announced that in celebration of its recently completed initial public offering and NASDAQ listing it will ring the opening bell at the NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square on Tuesday, August 26, 2014.

13 August 2014

Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Enters into Use Agreement with Cydex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for Use of Captisol (R) for Ganaxolone IV

Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:MRNS), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative neuropsychiatric therapeutics, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with CyDex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Ligand Pharmaceutical Incorporated, for the clinical use of Captisol, a patent protected, uniquely modified cyclodextrin, whose chemical structure was designed to improve solubility, stability, bioavailability and dosing of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Marinus intends to evaluate optimizing its intravenous (IV) dose form of ganaxolone with Captisol.

31 July 2014

Epic Sciences Appoints Greg Lucier as Chairman of the Board of Directors

Epic Sciences, a private biotech company that designs and develops novel diagnostics to personalize and advance the treatment and management of cancer, announced today the appoint of Gregory T. Lucier as chairman of Epic’s board of directors. Mr. Lucier was previously chairman and CEO of Life Technologies (formerly Invitrogen). Mr. Lucier joins Epic’s board of directors to provide expertise as Epic commercializes its circulating rare cell analysis platform with special focus on the development of products and services to detect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in cancer. 

31 July 2014

Entinostat Improves Treatment Outcomes When Combined with Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Preclinical Tumor Models

Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that newly published results demonstrate that in preclinical studies entinostat significantly improved treatment outcomes in mouse tumor models when combined with anti-PD1 and anti-CTLA4 targeted antibodies. The paper from Kim, et al. at The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, titled "Eradication of metastatic mouse cancers resistant to immune checkpoint blockade by suppression of myeloid derived cells" was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 

30 July 2014

Epic Sciences Announces Series C Financing to Advance Essential Cancer Diagnostics for Personalized Medicine

Epic Sciences, Inc. ("Epic"), a privately held biotech company that designs and develops novel diagnostics to personalize and advance the treatment and management of cancer, announced today the completion of a $30 million Series C Preferred Stock financing. The financing included new investors RusnanoMedInvest (RMI) and Arcus Ventures, existing investors Domain Associates, Roche Venture Fund, and Pfizer Venture Investments, as well as undisclosed individual investors. With the proceeds of the financing, Epic will commercialize its circulating rare cell analysis platform with special focus on developing products and services to detect circulating tumor cells (CTC) in cancer. Epic's technology enables the rapid and minimally invasive characterization of protein biomarker and genomic profiles in CTCs allowing for superior therapy selection and the early drug resistance detection.

30 June 2014

First Patient Enrolled in ECOG-ACRIN Phase III Trial of Syndax’s Entinostat

The ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group and Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced today enrollment of the first patient in E2112, a randomized phase III clinical trial of Syndax’s histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, entinostat, for the treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer. The trial is evaluating whether the addition of entinostat to endocrine therapy (exemestane, a steroidal aromatase inhibitor) improves progression-free survival and/or overall survival in men and postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative advanced breast cancer who have progressed following treatment with a non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor.

12 June 2014

NovaDigm strengthens candida vaccine portfolio with three new antigens

PBR

NovaDigm Therapeutics has acquired the rights, in four separate transactions, to three well-studied Candida vaccine antigens, significantly bolstering the Company’s Candida vaccine pipeline.

10 June 2014

NovaDigm Therapeutics Strengthens Candida Vaccine Portfolio with Three New Antigens via Series of Rights Acquisitions

NovaDigm Therapeutics, a company developing innovative vaccines for fungal and bacterial infections, today announced that it has acquired the rights, in four separate transactions, to three well-studied Candida vaccine antigens, significantly bolstering the Company’s Candida vaccine pipeline.