Industry news

Ex-Elan execs target €325M IPO for life science fund

Nick Paul Taylor / Fierce Biotech

Former Elan CEO Kelly Martin and other people with links to the Irish drugmaker are aiming to raise up to €325 million ($364 million) in an IPO to bankroll their life science investment fund. The IPO on the Irish Stock Exchange could dwarf last year's listing by Circassia (LON:CIR) and become one of the biggest floats in European biotech history.

Canon Announces New Biomedical Company

BioPharm International

Canon U.S.A announced on March 2, 2015 that it established Canon BioMedical to develop, manufacture, and market operations related to Canon’s life-science and molecular diagnostics platform. The company also plans to expand the use of Canon technology into other medical fields.

Corporations are VCs, too

George Gaprindashvili / PitchBook Blog

Corporate venture capital isn’t new; companies like Intel, Siemens, Cisco and Johnson & Johnson have long had VC arms. But, as seemingly everything else in the venture realm, the number of active corporate VCs is quickly growing. In 2014, 166 different corporate VC investors completed at least one deal, a 73% increase from the 96 such investors in 2005.

Patent filings up in China: What does that mean for the biopharma sector?

Shannon Ellis / BioWorld

China has seen a massive rise in patent filings over the last seven years, with the number of published patents growing an average of 16 percent annually.

02 March 2015

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Initiates Phase 2 Clinical Trial to Evaluate Reducing Treatment Visits While Improving Outcomes in Macular Edema Associated with Retinal Vein Occlusion

Clearside Biomedical, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class drug therapies to treat blinding diseases of the eye, today announced the enrollment of the first patient in a Phase 2 randomized, controlled, masked, multi-center clinical trial for the treatment of macular edema associated with retinal vein occlusion (RVO) using Clearside’s proprietary formulation of triamcinolone acetonide, CLS-TA, administered via suprachoroidal (SCS) injection using Clearside’s proprietary microinjector.

Financial scorecard: biotech continues its great start

Peter Winter / BioWorld

As February moves into its final trading week the biotech sector continues to roll along, setting the pace for another strong year.

Is A Renaissance In Surging Biotechs Underway?

Gene Marcial / Forbce

Not too long ago, investing in biotechnology was perceived as plain gambling. The rewards could be high, to be sure, but so were the risks in playing the arcane biotech stocks.

Nobel winner Harald Zur Hausen on vaccines and the need for basic research

EJ Lane / FeircePharmaAsia

Harald zur Hausen in 1976 published the hypothesis that human papillomavirus plays an important role in the cause of cervical cancer. It took three decades before that groundbreaking work led to approval of a vaccine for cervical cancer.

China says to implement drug distribution reforms

Adam Jourdan and Megha Rajagopalan / Reuters

China said on Saturday it would implement drug distribution reforms including centralisation measures designed to cut prices and reduce corruption.

Empowered patients want greater sway over industry and the FDA

Marie Powers / BioWorld

Consumers are frustrated with the pace of drug and medical device development, and they want more engagement with industry and regulators at every step of the process, from trial design to FDA review. Savvy biopharmas and medical device manufacturers would be wise to heed that call by incorporating input from patients at every stage of development and sharing that feedback with the FDA as part of regulatory filings.