Financings
• NewLink Genetics Corp. secured $7.5 million in a Series D financing.
• OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $9.5 million in a registered direct stock offering.
• Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. priced a $75 million public stock offering.
• Oxigene Inc. raised $10 million in a registered direct offering of stock and warrants.
• Profectus BioSciences Inc. closed a $5 million Series C venture round.
Deals
• AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc. got $20 million in up-front cash and stock in an expanded cancer discovery deal with OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc.
• Gilead Sciences Inc. teamed up with Tibotec Pharmaceuticals Ltd. on a next-generation, three-in-one HIV pill combining Gilead's Truvada with Tibotec's TMC278.
• GlaxoSmithKline plc completed its $2.9 billion acquisition of Stiefel Laboratories Inc.
• Kotinos Pharmaceuticals Inc. paid $15 million for Ambrilia Biopharma Inc.'s Phase I/II prostate cancer drug PCK3145.
• Medarex Inc. became the subject of a $2.4 billion takeover by partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
. . . And More
• Restructuring Watch: Biopure Corp. filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11. Meanwhile EPIX Pharmaceuticals Inc. took steps to conclude operations and liquidate, and Celera Corp. cut 13 percent of its staff.
• Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. said exenatide once weekly beat Lantus (insulin glargine, Sanofi-Aventis Group) in a head-to-head diabetes trial.
• BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported positive Phase III results from two trials in Japan with seasonal flu drug peramivir.
• FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s pivotal Phase II/III trial showed that tafamidis (Fx-1006A) significantly halted disease progression and reduced disease burden in transthyretin amyloid polyneuropathy.
• Human Genome Sciences Inc. saw its stock shoot up 277 percent on positive top-line data from a Phase III study of lupus drug Benlysta (belimumab). And the good news kept coming: The U.S. government exercised its option to purchase about $151 million worth of ABthrax (raxibacumab).
• Incyte Corp. reached agreement with the FDA on a special protocol assessment for its Phase III trial of JAK inhibitor INCB18424 in myelofibrosis.
• Labopharm Inc. received a complete response letter for antidepressant trazodone due to manufacturing deficiencies.
• Nycomed AS submitted a new drug application for Daxas (roflumilast), a once-daily oral treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s stock popped 21 percent after the company and partner Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals said Nexavar (sorafenib) extended progression-free survival in breast cancer.
• Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. reported that obesity drug Contrave (bupropion SR/naltrexone SR) met its endpoints in its three remaining pivotal studies.
• Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. started a Phase III program of VEGF Trap-Eye in central retinal vein occlusion.
• Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc. and partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. said one Phase III trial of bowel drug Amitiza (lubiprostone) hit its mark while a second failed.