You could say Invenra Inc. has been working toward bispecific antibodies for years. Founded in 2011, the University of Wisconsin-Madison spin-off launched with the aim of making antibody drug discovery more efficient, eventually developing a platform based on ultra-high-throughput technology capable of synthesizing hundreds of thousands of full-length antibodies using cell-free expression, with a screening platform that allows researchers to pinpoint those with the most promising biological activity.
The team at Bellerophon Therapeutics Inc. intends to further analyze data after an unexpectedly disappointing interim look at the phase III INOvation-1 study testing its inhaled nitric oxide delivery system in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) failed to show sufficient improvements in the six-minute walk distance (6WMD), the primary endpoint. That review prompted the data monitoring committee (DMC) to recommend the study be stopped for futility and sent shares of the Warren, N.J.-based company (NASDAQ:BLPH) falling more than 68 percent Tuesday.
Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s newly approved Azedra (iobenguane I 131) arrives on the market with a nod for ultra-orphan neuroendocrine tumors, a hefty price tag and a label the New York-based firm hopes will lay the foundation for its broader radiopharmaceutical efforts.
Hoping to repeat its phase II success, Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. enrolled the first patient in its pivotal phase III trial testing a topical version of its aldehyde trap, reproxalap, in ichthyosis associated with Sjögren-Larsson syndrome (SLS), a rare disease for which there are no approved therapies.
For Dermira Inc., winning the FDA's nod for Qbrexza (glycopyrronium cloth) as the first once-daily, topical treatment for primary axillary hyperhidrosis is only step one in its commercialization challenge. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based dermatology-focused firm now is tasked with reaching the nearly 10 million people estimated to suffer from the condition, more commonly known as excessive underarm sweating, many of whom have given up on ever finding a treatment.
As widely expected, Array Biopharma Inc.'s combo regimen of an oral, small-molecule BRAF kinase inhibitor and an oral, small-molecule MEK inhibitor cleared the FDA for use in patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma with BRAFV600E or BRAFV600K mutations, a first approval that could prove only the tip of the iceberg for the Boulder, Colo.-based firm's development of two- and three-drug combos to follow.
Is a fourth complete response letter (CRL) in the works for embattled pain drug Remoxy ER? Wall Street seemed to think so, sending shares of developer Pain Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:PTIE) down 71.5 percent to close Wednesday at $2.44, the day after a joint meeting of the FDA's Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee and Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee voted 14-3, recommending against approval of the abuse-deterrent, extended-release, oral formulation of opioid drug oxycodone.
Barely a week after Wall Street hailed interim data from a RNA-targeting small-molecule candidate in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) candidate, startup Skyhawk Therapeutics Inc., which also is taking a small-molecule approach to correct RNA mutations, disclosed a $40 million equity investment round and a neurology-focused option deal with Celgene Corp. that brings $60 million up front.
With one biopharma set to price its IPO this week, three others – neurology-focused Aptinyx Inc., stem cell gene therapy firm Avrobio Inc. and specialty pharma Xeris Pharmaceuticals Inc. – have set terms for their anticipated offerings, putting the sector on track to match last year's IPO activity, at least in terms of number of offerings. In terms of money raised, however, the first half of 2018 looks like it might top the amount raised in global IPOs priced in the first half of 2017.
