Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Boston, will diversify its portfolio beyond its top-selling Soliris (eculizumab) and C5 inhibitor Ultomiris (ravulizumab) by acquiring Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $1.4 billion. Alexion’s CEO, Ludwig Hantson, told investors May 5 that the acquisition immediately diversifies the company’s commercial-stage portfolio by adding Portola’s Andexxa (coagulation factor Xa [recombinant], inactivated-zhzo) to Alexion’s existing palette of hematology and neurology therapies. Alexion’s CEO, Ludwig Hantson, told investors May 5 that the acquisition immediately diversifies the company’s commercial-stage portfolio by adding Portola’s Andexxa (coagulation factor Xa [recombinant], inactivated-zhzo) to Alexion’s existing palette of hematology and neurology therapies. Andexxa is the only FDA-approved factor Xa inhibitor reversal agent in severe and uncontrolled bleeding.
The business of cancer therapy in the U.S. is where the big money is, and the Menarini Group, a privately held Italian pharma and diagnostics company, just got a place at the table with its acquisition deal worth up to $677 million for New York’s Stemline Therapeutics Inc.
9 Meters Biopharma Inc., of Raleigh, N.C., is newly born from the merger of Innovate Biopharmaceuticals Inc. and privately held RDD Pharma Ltd., of New York and Tel Aviv, Israel. About $22 million in new financing, led by Orbimed Advisors Ltd., and the signing of another merger into the new company of Richmond, Calif.-based Naia Rare Diseases Inc., which develops GLP-1 to treat short bowel syndrome, completes 9 Meters’ new path.
Six of six critically ill COVID-19 patients survived after being treated as compassionate care cases with Capricor Therapeutics Inc.’s lead candidate, an off-the-shelf cardiac cell therapy. The success prompted the FDA to review the data and approve the company’s expanded access protocol for treating as many as 20 more COVID-19 patients.
The phase III failure of Blueprint Medicines Corp.’s avapritinib to meet its primary endpoint of improving progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) pummeled the company stock on Tuesday but boosted shares and hopes at Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Weeks after raising an oversubscribed $60 million series A, Affinia Therapeutics Inc., of Waltham, Mass., is collaborating with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a far larger deal, one potentially worth more than $1.6 billion.
Oric Pharmaceuticals Inc. stepped into a tough economic climate on Friday when it priced its IPO of 7.5 million shares of common stock at $16 each and won the day as shares (NASDAQ:ORIC) closed at $25.77 each, 61.06% higher than they started.
Privately held Swanbio Therapeutics Inc., of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., completed a $52 million expanded series A financing designed to boost the company’s R&D of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapies to treat adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN) and other rare, monogenic neurological diseases.
Biogen Inc. handily beat earnings expectations in its first-quarter 2020 earnings report to investors but leavened the good news by adding that it now plans to submit its BLA for beta-amyloid-targeting aducanumab for treating Alzheimer’s disease in the third quarter of 2020.
