Industry news

26 August 2014

New eye implant could replace glasses

Sharon Marris, Express

Reading glasses may become a thing of the past as a new implant revolutionises treatment for ageing eyes.

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.

12 August 2014

Lithera Announces Company Name Change to Neothetics, Inc.

Lithera, Inc., announced today that it has changed its name to Neothetics, Inc. The new name strengthens the company's positioning as a clinical-stage, specialty pharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics for the aesthetics market. 

01 August 2014

12 Industry-Venture Fund Alliances: 2014 Edition

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN)

For companies struggling with R&D costs, VC firms can be saviors. It helps to have a friend. And for several pharma giants scrambling to cut R&D costs, those friends are venture capital firms that co-invest in startups whose new drugs and platform technologies appear attractive. In some cases, these pharma-venture “alliances” launch the startups, using the expertise of VC firm partners and company executives. Following is a list of 12 such alliances announced in recent years, mostly by biopharma giants with venture capital firms and alliance between Rusnano and Domain Associates is on the first place by total size of funds. 

NIH launches new program to find potential drug targets

National Institutes of Health, USA

Researchers will explore poorly understood genes, build information repository

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.

Payers vs. drug makers on HCV drug costs

BioCentury

Dueling reports released by groups representing drug makers on one side and payers on the other, highlight the benefit of new HCV treatments as well as the cost. Sovaldi sofosbuvir from Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) and Olysio simeprevir from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) are estimated to increase 2015 federal spending on the individual Medicare Part D program by $2.9-$5.8 billion (6-11%), according to a report commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which represents payers. 

Which billion-dollar biotechs are short sellers targeting? – top and bottom 15

Michael Flanagan, FirstWord Lists

The boom and bust nature of the biotech sector makes it a natural place for short sellers with a healthy appetite for risk. One name receiving ample attention recently is MannKind, which is looking for a marketing partner to sell its newly approved diabetes drug – an effort on which many investors are betting it will come up short.