Deals and Data, March 31- April 27, 2009
Congratulations are in order, again, to Ligand Pharmaceuticals, this time for the approval from the European Commission for its Conbriza treatment for postmenopausal osteoporosis in women ... Also getting its time in Europe, Minnow Medical, which makes devices to treat heart disease, received the CE Mark clearing its disposable catheter with a radio- frequency control for marketing in the European Union.
And speaking of other major milestones, Cypress Biosciences and Forest Labs say that the company's Savella to treat fibromyalgia is now on the market after a small cosmetic formulation change the FDA wanted.
Never one to sit still, NuVasive made an $47 million acquisition of Cervitech, which makes a line of spinal cervical disks used to give patients motion.
ChemDiv, a global chemistry contract research organization, says its ChemRar High Tech Center has acquired Prudentas LLC, a CRO company conducting Phase I - Phase IV studies in Eastern Europe. Prudentas will continue to operate separately under the name Prudentas LLC, a ChemDiv Group company.
Ocera Therapeutics showed Phase II data on its AST-120 to treat patients with hepatic encephalopathy. The firm also added to its gastrointestional focused pipeline by licensing a novel treatment for acute hepatic encephalopathy from UK based University College London Business. ... Aeolus Pharmaceuticals pulls in a $1.5 million financing ... Cortex Pharmaceuticals, also up in Irvine, also closed a $1.5 million financing round.
Pure Bioscience is among the local life science companies like Quidel who have received a raft of attention over their swine-flu related efforts. Pure also plans to raise $15 million, according to Xconomy.com. This story promises to be a major one for the industry and the world, so keep an eye out for how your friends and neighbors in the. Pure industry are working to help out your friends and neighbors across the globe.
A preliminary study on the use of stem cells obtained from a patient's own adipose tissue in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) has shown promising results. The three case studies, described in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Translational Medicine support further clinical evaluation of stromal vascular fraction cells in MS and other autoimmune conditions. Medistem Inc. and UCSD showed the data; click here to read a few articles on the information.
Avineuro Pharmaceuticals started a Phase I clinical study of AVN-101, a small molecule treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The results of Phase I studies are expected to be available in May 2009. Also starting a Phase I trial, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals says it has initiated a Phase I clinical trial of VTX-1463 in the Netherlands (PDF), a selective intranasal TLR8 agonist for the treatment of allergic rhinitis.
Inovio and partner VGX Pharmaceutical have extended their planned wedding date to June 30, 2009 ... the FDA has accepted Santarus' new drug application for a new tablet formulation of its Zegerid product for severe heartburn; expect a response in early December ... Somaxon gave an update on the FDA's outlook for its sleeping pill ... and Anadys released some new Phase Ib data on its Hepatitis C virus treatment ... while Amira Pharmaceuticals started a Phase I clinical study of AM211, its internally discovered oral drug candidate for the treatment and control of inflammatory and allergic diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonar disease, linked to the arachidonic acid pathway.
Here's a few weekly roundups from Xconomy.com looking at major local events, and another, while here's a profile of Psylin Neurosciences, an offshoot of Amylin.
Zenobia Therapeutics is now providing a fragment screening library suitable for use in protein crystallography. The library contains a diverse set 352 small molecule compounds with mean molecular weight of 155 Da. The chemical compound types (typically, simple decorated rings) are suitable for efficiently probing protein sites to determine binding substructures for lead discovery. The compounds in the library are pre-plated and have been tested to ensure adequate solubility in DMSO. Contact Dr. Vicki Nienaber at vicki@zenobiatherapeutics.com or visit www.zenobiatherapeutics.com for more information.
Asterand plc says it has entered into a collaborative agreement with Abcam plc for the validation and characterisation of a selected group of Abcam antibodies for immuno-histochemistry applications using Asterand's PhaseZERO Human Tissue Services platform.
Specialty pharmaceutical and diagnostic company Prometheus Laboratories and Rosetta Genomics Ltd., a molecular diagnostic company, announced a license and collaboration agreement under which Rosetta grants Prometheus U.S. rights to three recently introduced, microRNA-based cancer diagnostic tests.
And finally, it's been a great (almost) six years of doing the Biocommunique and especially writing about the trials and tribulations in this industry via my Deals and Data column for BIOCOM- I'm confident that I'm leaving you in the greatest possible hands for this gig as Terri Somers, the San Diego Union-Tribune's biotech reporter, who has far more experience as a reporter than I do, will be taking over for me. Feel free to contact me at my new media relations job at Life Technologies in Carlsbad, and may your deals have many dollars in them and your data be definitive in the most positive way ...