Today Stories

United Therapeutics Corporation (Nasdaq: UTHR) today announced the closing of the transactions contemplated by its license agreement with Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARNA). Under the agreement, United Therapeutics acquired exclusive, worldwide rights to develop and manufacture the Phase 3 investigational drug candidate ralinepag, a next-generation, oral, selective and potent prostacyclin receptor agonist in development for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).  Upon closing, United Therapeutics paid Arena $800 million. Arena is also entitled to potential milestone payments of up to $400 million based on the achievement of certain regulatory events as well as low double-digit tiered royalties on annual net sales of ralinepag products.   &n…

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and Allergan plc. (NYSE: AGN) today announced positive top-line results from a Phase 1/ Phase 3 study evaluating the pharmacokinetics, efficacy and safety of biosimilar candidate ABP 798, a biosimilar candidate to RITUXAN® (rituximab), compared to rituximab in patients with moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis. The results demonstrate that the study met its primary endpoint of pharmacokinetic (PK) similarity. Additionally, equivalent efficacy was established and a similar safety profile was demonstrated. The primary objective of the study was PK similarity comparing ABP 798 to rituximab. The PK endpoints of the study were area under the serum concentration–time curve (AUC) and maximum serum concentration (Cmax), both of which were within the pre-specified equi…

B-MoGen Biotechnologies, Inc. and CytoSen Therapeutics announced today a research collaboration to develop the next generation of gene-modified Natural Killer Cell (NK) therapies.  B-MoGen will utilize its expertise in genetic design and its patented non-viral gene delivery platform in conjunction with CytoSen's nanoparticle expansion platform to improve efficacy and reduce cost of NK cell therapeutics.  "We are very excited and look forward to teaming up with CytoSen to utilize our scientific expertise and engineering work with CARs and TCRs to help develop NK treatments in the human therapeutics space," said Jeff Liter, President and CEO of B-MoGen.  "CytoSen's innovation, science and pioneering technology is a perfect fit with B-MoGen's genome engineering experience and…

LunaPBC, founder of LunaDNA, the first community-owned genomic and health data platform, announced today its partnership with Genetic Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to providing ordinary people with powerful tools to transform research. Over the course of 2019, the organizations will merge Genetic Alliance's Platform for Engaging Everyone Responsibly engagement platform with LunaDNA to provide individuals and communities with more resources to support health management while maximizing research opportunities. The partnership enables LunaPBC and Genetic Alliance to unite their shared mission and technologies to create seamless solutions to support individuals, disease foundations, and patient advocacy organizations while also powering disease research at scale. Shared values across…

Medline, a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products with patient-centered solutions, services and expertise across the continuum of care, today announced it has been awarded a group purchasing agreement for laboratory distribution services with Intalere, effective January 1, 2019 for two years.  Intalere members already have access to competitive pricing through Medline as their primary medical distributor through a 4-year agreement renewed in February 2018.  This new laboratory contract complements what is in place by extending this negotiated pricing to Intalere members that also select Medline to be their primary laboratory distributor.  With more than 40 distribution centers strategically located across the country, Medline offers Intalere…

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved pharma giants Sanofi and Merck's Vaxelis, a new pediatric vaccine against six diseases. The vaccine will help to bolster vaccination rates across the US by reducing the shot burden on infants and children, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.  Vaxelis, which is indicated for active immunization to prevent diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, hepatitis B and invasive disease due to Haemophilus influenzae type b, was developed as part of a joint-partnership between Sanofi and Merck, known as MSD outside the US and Canada. James Mather, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, says: “Vaxelis’ approval in the US is a major regulatory breakthrough, as the FDA has been more hesitant than the European Medi…

Luye Pharma has announced it has entered an agreement with AstraZeneca China, the terms of which grant AstraZeneca China exclusive rights to promote Luye Pharma's Xuezhikang Capsules in mainland China. This is the first time that a multinational pharmaceutical company has gained exclusive authorization in China to promote an innovative drug independently developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical company. According to the agreement, AstraZeneca will be responsible for the exclusive promotion of Xuezhikang Capsules in mainland China, while Luye Pharma will retain asset rights, commercial sales rights, the registration permit, all intellectual property rights and other product-related rights aside from product promotion. As a widely acknowledged product both at home and abroad, Xuezhikang is th…

JOLT Advantage Group, a leading North American IT consulting firm, specialized in Intelligent Automation, Business Transformation and Performance, announced today its partnership with UiPath, the global leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software, to join forces to democratize RPA and help organizations attain long term success with end-to-end support on their digital transformation journey. JOLT recently completed a large assets acquisition from Everpace, a pure-play, purpose-built RPA boutique firm, that carried a vast amount of custom process automation frameworks, deployment accelerators, and unique RPA operational models to strengthen JOLT's existing intelligent automation portfolio with a scalable automation design across multiple verticals, including healthcare, finance, ba…

Following its completed acquisition of Aetna, CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) today announced a $100 million commitment to making community health and wellness central to the newly combined company's charge for a better world. The new Building Healthier Communities initiative, which will be funded over five years through the combined company as well as the CVS Health Foundation and Aetna Foundation, builds upon the outstanding tradition of community investment by both organizations and mobilizes their scale, combined capabilities and resources behind a unified strategy to deliver a measurable impact on the health of communities across the United States. "We believe the path to better health and a better world can be reached by creating a whole new health care model that's more local, affordable, a…

Collaboration will initially support nine new phase I/II clinical trials with Nanobiotix’s first-in-class agent NBTXR3 for use in treating six cancer types - head and neck, pancreatic, thoracic, lung, gastrointestinal and genitourinary cancers - involving around 340 patients Most of the trials are expected to be launched in 2019 Collaboration includes a $12M total investment from Nanobiotix NANOBIOTIX and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today announced a large-scale, comprehensive clinical research collaboration to evaluate innovative strategies for treating patients with head and neck, pancreatic, thoracic, lung, gastrointestinal and genitourinary cancers. The collaboration will expand clinical development of NBTXR3, a first-in-class agent designed to physically destro…

AbSci, a global leader in biotherapeutic discovery and manufacturing technologies, today announced a collaboration with Sanofi.  Under the terms of the agreement, AbSci will apply its breakthrough E.coli manufacturing platform, SoluProTM, and its novel optimization assay system, to two of Sanofi's biotherapeutic molecules. AbSci's proprietary technology platform is designed with the ability to rapidly achieve optimized, scalable, high-quality, high-titer production of any class of biotherapeutic molecule, including traditionally difficult to manufacture molecules and next-generation scaffolds. The collaboration will take place at AbSci and be funded by Sanofi. "It is exciting to partner with a renowned company like Sanofi," said Sean McClain, CEO of AbSci. "This collaboration illustr…

CytoReason, a leader in machine learning for drug discovery and development, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) that will leverage CytoReason’s cell-centered models of the immune system.   CytoReason will receive from Pfizer payments potentially equaling up to low double digit millions of US$ for technology access fees, research support and certain success-based payments.   CytoReason’s proprietary platform helps rebuild lost cellular information from gene expression data and associates genes to specific cells. This information is then integrated with additional omics and literature data to create a cell-based model of the trial-specific immune response. Integration with the CytoReason disease model empowers the stud…

Velabs Therapeutics, specializing in the fast generation of functional therapeutic antibodies, today announced that it has entered into a collaboration agreement with BioMed X Innovation Center, Heidelberg. The collaboration will capitalize on Velabs’ microfluidics-based technology in the field of T-cell screening. The BioMed X Innovation Center is a new collaboration model at the interface between academia and industry. BioMed X is using the Velabs platform to support the research team of John Lindner to explore new concepts for rapid identification of auto-antigens in autoimmune diseases. The research team, sponsored by Janssen Research & Development, LLC, will use high-throughput microfluidic screening approaches to couple T-cell receptor specificity with auto-antigens. Velabs The…

·         Norgine to receive a significant upfront payment and undisclosed sums in sales milestones along with double-digit percentage royalties ·         Norgine retains full commercial rights to PLENVU® in all unlicensed countries   NORGINE B.V. (Norgine), a leading European specialist pharmaceutical company and KOREA PHARMA CO., LTD. (Korea Pharma), a premier pharmaceutical manufacturer in Korea, today announced an exclusive licence and distribution agreement in the Republic of Korea by which Korea Pharma will commercialise Norgine’s product PLENVU®. PLENVU® is a lower-volume (1L) polyethylene glycol (PEG) based bowel preparation for colonoscopy in adults. It is the first lower-volume bowel preparat…

NEW YORK & SUMMIT, N.J.,--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) and Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Bristol-Myers Squibb will acquire Celgene in a cash and stock transaction with an equity value of approximately $74 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Celgene shareholders will receive 1.0 Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50.00 in cash for each share of Celgene. Celgene shareholders will also receive one tradeable Contingent Value Right (CVR) for each share of Celgene, which will entitle the holder to receive a payment for the achievement of future regulatory milestones. The Boards of Directors of both companies have approved the combination. The transaction will create a le…

Researchers have launched a clinical trial to develop a breath test, analysing molecules that could indicate the presence of cancer at an early stage. This is the first test of its kind to investigate multiple cancer types. A cancer breath test has huge potential to provide a non-invasive look into what’s happening in the body and could help to find cancer early, when treatment is more likely to be effective.  The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre is running the PAN Cancer trial for Early Detection of Cancer in Breath* in collaboration with Owlstone Medical** to test their Breath Biopsy® technology. Breath samples from people will be collected in the clinical trial to see if odorous molecules called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be detected. Profe…

Precision Medicine Group, Inc. (Precision) today announced it has acquired Stern Investor Relations, Inc. (Stern IR), a leading investor relations firm for entrepreneurial biotechnology and healthcare companies. With this acquisition, Precision significantly expands its capabilities to include a complete range of strategic communication services aimed at facilitating capital formation and enhancing client visibility and productive interactions with the financial community. Stern IR supports more than 70 companies in the entrepreneurial biotechnology and healthcare sectors, and its core competencies include creation of investor relations strategy aimed at lowering the cost of capital, positioning and messaging development, relationship building with the financial community, and seamless tac…

Kineta Immuno-Oncology, LLC (KIO), a subsidiary of Kineta, Inc., today announced that it has entered into a strategic research collaboration with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) to develop RIG-I agonist immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.  The research collaboration and license agreement grants to Pfizer the exclusive rights to KIO's RIG-I screening platform and related compounds and technologies.  The companies will collaborate to develop and test small molecule agonists that target RIG-I, an innate immunostimulatory pathway that can elicit immunogenic cell death (ICD) in tumors, providing both direct tumor cell killing and enhanced anti-tumor immune responses.  In preclinical models, Kineta's RIG-I agonists have demonstrated complete tumor regression and an increase…

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced an agreement with Hydra Biosciences to acquire all assets related to  Hydra's pre-clinical program of TRPA1 antagonists, part of the Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) family of ion channels, that is currently being studied for the potential treatment of chronic pain syndromes. "At Lilly, we are committed to developing new treatment options for people struggling with chronic pain," said Mark Mintun, M.D., vice president of pain and neurodegeneration research at Lilly. "Through the acquisition of this promising pre-clinical program from Hydra, we will advance our understanding of the TRP pathway in pain signaling, and will seek to initiate clinical studies in the near term." "We are very excited to be transitioning this program into L…

Orchard Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ORTX), a leading commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to transforming the lives of patients with serious and life-threatening rare diseases through innovative gene therapies, and SIRION Biotech GmbH today announced the entry into a license agreement, pursuant to which Orchard has licensed SIRION’s LentiBOOST™ technology to enhance manufacturing efficiency for certain of Orchard’s ex vivo autologous hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy drug candidates. “At Orchard Therapeutics, we are establishing manufacturing capabilities to deliver potentially transformative gene therapy products to rare disease patients around the globe. Optimization of lentiviral transduction through a technology such as LentiBOOST™, along with the build-out of our recentl…