Deals and Data, March 10-30, 2009
Sangart pulled off a venture round of $50 million which the company will use to advance its blood substitute. The Series F round of financing now totals $100 million to advance its product, made from modified hemoglobin purified from outdated blood, according to Xconomy.com, who also reported that Cytori Therapeutics closed on a deal to raise almost $10 million, as well as stem cell firm Stemgent which took in $14 million to make research supplies.
Almost two years after starting its bidding war to buy Biosite, Inverness Medical Innovations has been out shopping in Sorrento Mesa again, this time picking up Acon Laboratories for a cool $200 million. Acon Laboratories makes a range of lateral flow rapid diagnostic tests for point of care medical diagnostics that are affordable to people worldwide, the company says.
Shares of Pfizer surged 10 percent after news emerged that patients in another trial of its Sutent treatment for pancreatic cancer were being taken off the placebo. The news got especially hot when an early Reuters report claimed that Apple's Steve Jobs was on the drug; turns out, he just has the same disease. And in case you were wondering, a ten percent surge at Pfizer is about a nine billion dollar increase in market cap.
Ligand and partner Pfizer also received approval from the European Commission for Fablyn, a selective estrogen receptor modulator for the treatment of osteoporosis in post-menopausal women at increased risk of fracture. Fablyn was submitted for approval in Europe in January 2008. This is the first regulatory approval the product, which stems from a 1991 research collaboration with Ligand. Ligand and GSK also selected another lead compound, landing Ligand a half-million milestone.
Acadia Pharmaceuticals signed a Cal-Asia partnership with Meiji Seika Kaisha, based in Japan, for the development of a new class of drugs to treat schizophrenia. Meiji will make up to $25 million in payment and split royalties with Meiji taking care of initial development expenses … Amylin and partner Lilly showed new data on its long-acting version of Byetta showing no long-term cardiovascular events, giving the stock a boost … Also working in diabetes, Metabasis Therapeutics said its MB07803 was effective at helping control the disease; more study is warranted.
Arena Pharmaceuticals released its long-awaited Phase III data of its Lorcaserin for obesity, showing the drug was safe and effective at helping patients lose weight; more Phase III data is pending. The company also landed a $50 million equity financing.
Aethlon Medical says it was able to reduce viral loads in HIV patients … Some might say that it was possibly just a simple twist of something-or-other, but Fate Therapeutics has started its first clinical trial … Cadence Pharmaceuticals is stopping development of its hospital-based infections product … DSM obtained a technology license from MediVas for drug delivery … Carl Hull took the reigns from Hank Nordoff at Gen-Probe after Nordoff's planned retirement … Prometheus Labs says it has received approval from New York state for its blood diagnostic for irritable bowel syndrome … Quidel put out a study on the state of an overall weak flu season, which is good for us if not so much for them in terms of influenza product reorders.
Digirad says it got the FDA OK on its Cardius X-ACT imaging system, which is used to for visualizations in nuclear cardiology. Digirad is working with a number of top centers in nuclear cardiology, including the Biomedical Institute in Los Angeles, Jefferson Heart Institute in Philadelphia and University Cardiovascular Medical Group of UCLA in LosAngeles, to propagate they system.
Life Technologies received a raft of attention on news of its new nanotech initiative to help identify counterfeit luxury products. They got a boat load more when J. Craig Venter partnered with them on the launch of his Sorcerer II yacht, which is going on a fantastic global oceanic sampling voyage, poweredby Life Technologies' sequencing technology. The company also launched a new bench top stem cell service as well as got named by Frost and Sullivan as both the North American drug discovery technology company of the year, with CEO Greg Lucier named drug discovery technology CEO of the year, while the company was also recognized for its excellence in life science research tools. Life Technologies was also named to the FTSE4Good index series, which recognizes global ethical and environmental rules.
International Stem Cell has an agreement with tissue engineers at Cytograft Tissue Engineering to design a custom cell culture medium for cultivating living human vascular grafts which are expected to be used in future human clinical trials … Nereus Pharmaceuticals is starting a randomized Phase 2 clinical trial of its NPI-2358 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. This study follows on positive outcomes in the Phase 1 study assessing the safety, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of the company's lead product, which was developed from marine microbes … Calixa Therapeutics emerged from stealth with news of positive phase I results of its CXA-101 antibiotic.
AndroScience showed data on a Phase 2a dose-ranging study of their lead clinical compound to treat acne. The randomized, double-blinded, vehicle-controlled study completed in late 2008 enrolled 186 patients with acne and consisted of twice daily topical applications of ASC-J9 cream for 12 weeks to evaluate safety and ascertain preliminary efficacy … Here's an Xconomy.com profile on Anady's latest efforts in HIV … as well as this profile on Amira and a squeaky-clean look at Pure Bioscience.
Up in Irvine, Cortex Pharmaceuticals said that preclinical studies at the University ofCalifornia Irvine showed that Ampakine molecules showed promise in thetreatment of memory loss in Huntington’s disease. The studies were performed in mice harboring the genetic mutation found in humans thatis responsible for Huntington’s disease. These studies were published in the early online version of the prestigious, peer-reviewed journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
LA-based CytRx showed some preclinical data on a new treatment for diabetic peripheral neuropathy in animals, as well as preclinical data on a potential stroke treatment.
Spectrum Pharmaceuticals said it received notification that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted for filing and review the supplemental New Drug Application for FUSILEV for Injection in combination with5-FU containing regimens in advanced metastatic colorectal cancer. The user fee goal date for the sNDA is October 8, 2009.
And finally, congratulations are inorder for Irvine-based IDM Pharma, who says it received European approval for Mepact (mifamurtide, L-MTP-PE) to treat patients with non-metastatic, resectable osteosarcoma, a rare and often fatal bone tumor that typically affects children and young adults. IDM acquired Epimmune several years back, for those of you keeping box scores at home.