West Coast Biotech Roundup: Gilead, Adicet, Otonomy, destiny & more
the only Republican presidential candidate who didn’t convey up for final night’s debate was front-runner Donald Trump, however he made nationwide information on some other entrance this week by using announcing his intent to let Medicare negotiate drug costs—a especially un-GOP-like position.
The drug-price debate reverberated on the West Coast, too, as the Massachusetts legal professional common threatened California’s Gilead Sciences over the cost of its hepatitis C medication. otherwise to convey down drug costs: increase less expensive variations of pricy biologic medication. On that front, the FDA stated it will give Amgen a yea or nay determination through late September whether or not to permit its knockoff of the world’s best-selling drug come to market.
before you knock off for the weekend, how a few quick seem again on the week? Let’s get to the roundup.
—Former Kite Pharma (NASDAQ: KITE) CEO Aya Jakobovits launched Adicet Bio, a new Menlo Park, CA-based totally startup creating immunotherapies for most cancers and other diseases. the corporate has raised $ fifty one million from OrbiMed Advisors, where Jakobovits is a project accomplice, Novartis mission Fund, and Pontifax, and has obtained Israel’s utilized Immune technologies. Adicet will use the Israeli firm’s antibody know-how to modify human immune cells to assault tumors by latching onto protein fragments on the tumor cell surface.
—a new front opened this week in the marketing campaign to combat high drug prices. The Massachusetts legal professional basic Maura Healey threatened prison motion against Foster metropolis, CA-primarily based Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) over the excessive value of its hepatitis C medicines. In a letter made public Wednesday, Healey wrote that the excessive worth of Sovaldi ($ eighty four,000 for a 12-week path of treatment) and Harvoni ($ ninety four,500) “could constitute an unfair alternate observe in violation of Massachusetts regulation.”
—Biopharma advisor and former Xconomist columnist Stewart Lyman weighed in this week on the drug pricing fight with this essay on his site.
that you would be able to read Lyman’s Xconomy commentaries on drug pricing here and right here.
—Human longevity, the San Diego startup based by using human genome pioneer J. Craig Venter and Robert Hariri, has agreed to buy LifebankUSA, a expert in placental and umbilical twine blood banking and its related biomaterials trade. monetary terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
—Otonomy (NASDAQ: OTIC), the San Diego firm creating treatments for ailments and disorders of the ear, stated its injectable drug candidate for treating Ménière’s illness, OTO-104, also might offer protection to most cancers patients from listening to loss because of certain chemotherapy treatments. in keeping with Otonomy, hearing loss has been reported in as much as 90 percent of youngsters and young adults who’re treated with platinum-based totally chemotherapies like cisplatin. Otonomy stated it expects to begin a section 2 feasibility trial of OTO-104 at cancer centers later this yr.
—MannKind (NASDAQ: MNKD), the Valencia, CA-based maker of an inhalable insulin treatment with disappointing gross sales, has been working with investment bankers on strategic choices that would embrace a that you can imagine sale, consistent with a Reuters report that noted unnamed sources.
—The FDA conventional a advertising and marketing application from Thousand o.k., CA-primarily based Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) for a biosimilar to adalimumab (Humira), AbbVie’s blockbuster drug for a number of autoimmune illnesses. The agency promised to
make a decision through Sept. 25. however AbbVie’s patents might still block Amgen’s path to market for years.
—Shares of Redwood city, CA-based OncoMed prescription drugs (NASDAQ: OMED) plunged by greater than forty four p.c Monday, after the company disclosed terrible outcomes for tarextumab, its drug candidate for treating pancreatic cancer. The drug is in phase 2 trials. OncoMed inventory, which was trading above $17 a share remaining week, was buying and selling beneath $9 a share (January 29, 2016).
—NantCell, the Culver city, CA-primarily based arm of Patrick quickly-Shiong’s NantWorks umbrella, raised greater than $fifty seven million to fund development of remedies that enhance the immune device to combat cancer. Biocom, the San Diego lifestyles sciences industry staff, additionally introduced this week that soon-Shiong can be a keynote speaker at its annual world existence science partnering conference set for February 24-25 in La Jolla.
—destiny Therapeutics (NASDAQ: destiny) of San Diego mentioned Tuesday it has received the FDA’s green gentle to start human trying out for a cell immunotherapy that makes use of blood cells from donors to prevent existence-threatening problems in sufferers with certain blood cancers.
—San Diego-based totally Sophiris (NASDAQ: SPHS) said preliminary outcomes from a mid-stage learn about of its drug topsalysin in patients with localized prostate most cancers have been encouraging, with four of the first seven patients in the find out about responding to remedy. In November, Sophiris suggested positive results from a medical learn about of topsalysin in treating benign prostate hyperplasia.
(21)
