Drug Sponsors

Tioga raises $10 million for irritable bowel syndrome trial

Friday, April 13, 2012 01:26 PM

Tioga Pharmaceuticals of San Diego has closed its $10 million Series B equity financing led by new investor Thomas, McNerney & Partners, which invested $8 million in the round.

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Seattle Genetics, Millennium, Ventana collaborate on companion diagnostic test for Adcetris

Friday, April 13, 2012 12:37 PM

Seattle Genetics and Millennium, a subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical, have formed a collaboration with Ventana Medical Systems, a member of the Roche Group, through which Ventana will seek to develop, manufacture and commercialize a molecular companion diagnostic test with the goal of identifying patients who might respond to treatment with Adcetris based on CD30 expression levels in their tissue specimens.

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Flagship and Merck to foster early-stage life sciences innovation

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 12:37 PM

Flagship Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on healthcare and sustainability, has partnered with Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) and its newly formed Merck Research Ventures Fund to back new ventures that apply scientific breakthroughs to the development of new drugs in areas of unmet medical need.

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Threshold earns $20 million milestone payment from Merck

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 11:50 AM

Threshold Pharmaceuticals, a biotech based in South San Francisco, has earned a $20 million milestone payment from Merck for achieving a statistically significant progression free survival benefit in its 214-patient randomized controlled phase II clinical trial (404 trial).

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Arrowhead Research acquires Alvos Therapeutics

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 11:12 AM

Arrowhead Research, a nanomedicine company with development programs in RNA therapeutics and obesity, has acquired Alvos Therapeutics (formerly Mercator Therapeutics), the first biopharmaceutical company to use in vivo phage display technology to systematically develop novel cancer drugs.

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Takeda to acquire URL Pharma

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 09:53 AM

Takeda America Holdings (a subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical) has agreed to acquire URL Pharma, a Philadelphia-based specialty pharmaceutical company, for an upfront payment of $800 million and future performance-based contingent earn out payments. URL Pharma will be managed by Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA of Deerfield, Ill.

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Amgen to acquire KAI Pharmaceuticals

Tuesday, April 10, 2012 11:21 AM

Amgen of Thousand Oaks, Calif., has agreed to acquire South San Francisco-based KAI Pharmaceuticals, a privately held pharmaceutical company.  KAI's lead product candidate, KAI-4169, is a novel agent being initially studied for the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who are on dialysis. Amgen will acquire worldwide rights, excluding Japan, to KAI-4169.

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Eisai partners with PharmaSwiss on chemo agent distribution

Monday, April 9, 2012 02:19 PM

Eisai Europe, the Tokyo-based subsidiary of Eisai, has entered into an agreement with PharmaSwiss, the Switzerland-based division of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, to promote and distribute the Eisai's novel anticancer agent Halaven (eribulin mesylate) in a number of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

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Optimer strips chairman of title, fires CFO and VP

Monday, April 9, 2012 11:26 AM

The board of directors of Optimer Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego-based biopharmaceutical company, has removed Michael Chang as chairman and terminated John D. Prunty, chief financial officer, and Dr. Youe-Kong Shue, vice president.

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Presage and Millennium enter cancer research agreement

Monday, April 9, 2012 09:59 AM

Presage Biosciences, a Seattle, Wash.-based company that identifies clinically viable oncology drug combinations, has entered into a cancer research agreement with Millenium, Takeda’s oncology arm based in Cambridge, Mass.

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