Last week, Pfizer Inc. exercised the option it established earlier this year to acquire NextWave Pharmaceuticals for $255 million up front and potentially another $425 million based on certain sales milestones.
After selling off its commercial and cardiovascular operating segments and spinning the remaining R&D operations into Facet Biotech Corp., PDL BioPharma Inc. became dependent on royalties from humanized antibody products covered under licenses of its Queen et al. patents.
Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s Dificid (fidaxomicin), the first new product approved for Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) in more than 25 years, has a superior rate of sustained clinical response through 25 days after the end of treatment compared to oral vancomycin. (See BioWorld Today, May 31, 2011.)
Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s data for TH-302 in pancreatic cancer isn't perfect, but the biotech and its partner Merck KGaA think the Phase IIb results are good enough to justify pushing the drug into a Phase III trial for the indication.
When Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. received word that the FDA was issuing a complete response letter for HyQ, the news wasn't isolated to just the program that it's developing with Baxter International Inc. The FDA also put a temporary clinical hold on a subcutaneous version of ViroPharma Inc.'s Cinryze (C1 esterase inhibitor [human]). (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 3, 2012.)
Visterra Inc. made a splash at this year's Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The company has developed an antibody, VIS410, that neutralizes a broad spectrum of influenza A strains in a preclinical animal model. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 12, 2012.)
MedImmune is taking its new YTE technology to China. Last week, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca plc established a joint venture with WuXi AppTec to develop its anti-inflammatory drug MEDI5117 for the China market.
The demise of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s hepatitis C drug BMS-986094, which BMS discontinued development of after patients in its Phase IIb study experienced heart and kidney toxicity, stretched further than just the big pharma. The FDA put a partial clinical hold on Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s related nuc IDX184 and then slapped a hold on its next-generation nuc, IDX19368, as well.
