DUBLIN – French immunotherapy firm DBV Technologies SA put down a big marker by pricing biotech's largest secondary offering on Nasdaq so far this year, a hefty $244.8 million raise, which will further development of its peanut allergy therapy, which is entering pivotal trials later this year. Read More
HONG KONG – An oral cholera vaccine has been shown to be safe and protective against severe disease in children and adults in urban Bangladesh where the disease is endemic, supporting its use in mass immunization programs, according to the first real-life trial of the new Shanchol vaccine. Read More
SHANGHAI – Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. Ltd., a billion-dollar integrated pharma with R&D centers in New Jersey, Shanghai and Chengdu, has been pushing in the direction of innovation faster and farther than most other Chinese pharmas. And with the recent announcement they will invest ¥850 million (US$137 million) in a biologics manufacturing plant, it's clear the execs aren't afraid to invest heavily in the high-risk area of large molecules and immunotherapy. Read More
Protagonist Therapeutics Inc. has raised $40 million in an oversubscribed series C financing to move its first oral peptide candidate, PTG-100, into phase I testing as a potential oral therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) by the end of this year, likely in November or December. Read More
Lauding the advances made since the first prescription drug user fee agreement (PDUFA) debuted more than 20 years ago, drugmakers met with the FDA, patient groups and other stakeholders Wednesday for the opening round of negotiating the sixth installment of the agreement. Read More
With the first anti-interleukin (IL)-33 antibody to be reported functional in its lineup and another targeting IL-36 headed for human trials next year, Anaptysbio Inc. reaped $40 million in series D cash to advance the candidates through phase II trials. Read More
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., of New York, and the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston formed a translation research collaboration, which will focus on fibrotic diseases, including scleroderma, renal fibrosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Read More
Mesoblast Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, reported positive phase II trial results of its cell therapy product candidate for the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF) in Circulation Research. Read More