As investors lay down their final bets on the FDA’s looming decision on MannKind’s Afrezza, the company’s wealthy CEO has opted to put his money where his mouth has been–doubling down on an ambitious wager that the much-maligned inhaled insulin treatment Afrezza will get a green light from regulators.
Gearing up for a pivotal trial of its RePneu Lung Volume Reduction Coil system, Mountain View, CA-based PneumRx has $33 million in working capital commitments. Forbion Capital Partners and Endeavour Vision led the round. The company’s lung device is designed to improve lung function in emphysema patients by implanting Nitinol coils into the lungs to compress damaged tissue and restore elastic recoil to the lung, according to the company’s release.
Big upfront fees are out. Milestones are in. Partnerships will stay hot. The IPO window will stay open, despite a lackluster record in 2010. And investor confidence will grow, helping public biotech companies outperform the general market.
Continue reading ‘Burrill Predicts Big Surge in Biotech Buyouts for 2011′
Coupons work. That’s what drugmakers have discovered from the co-pay assistance they’ve been offering to shore up demand for aging branded drugs (Pfizer’s statin Lipitor), create demand for new ones (such as Amgen’s bone drug Xgeva and Novartis’ multiple sclerosis pill Gilenya), and insulate patients from big price increases (Jazz Pharmaceuticals’ narcolepsy treatment Xyrem). As the New York Times reports, sales volume for some of these treatments has doubled, and pharma companies have as much as quadrupled the sticker price for others.
The emerging-markets gold rush continues. Drugmakers continued their race into those fast-growing, tantalizing new markets. India, China, Brazil, Russia, Mexico–all so alluring in a world in which countries that could once be counted on for steady increases are no longer delivering.
Cancer Research UK is set to begin a Phase I trial for glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer. Forty-five patients have been recruited to receive the vaccine IMA950. The drug contains 11 peptides that are found in tumors but not healthy tissue. They “train” T cells in the immune system to recognize cancer cells as unhealthy cells–and then to target and destroy them. No other brain cancer vaccines in development work the same way. Cancer Research notes that using multiple peptides increases the chances of eliciting an immune response.
Allergan has done it. The FDA finally approved its wrinkle-fighter Botox as a treatment for migraines. The new indication could add $1 billion to its current annual sales of $1.3 billion, analysts say. “This is the most meaningful market expansion that the product has had since it was approved for cosmetic use,” Piper Jaffray’s David Amsellem tells Bloomberg.
Continue reading ‘New Migraine Use for Botox Could be Worth $1B’
Venture capital investments declined sharply in the third quarter of 2010, according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data provided by Thomson Reuters. Venture capitalists invested $4.8 billion in 780 deals in the third quarter of 2010; these numbers reflect a decline in quarterly investment activity of 31 percent in terms of dollars, as well as a decline of 19 percent in number of deals compared to the second quarter of 2010 when $6.9 billion was invested in 962 deals.
Continue reading ‘Biotechnology Continues to Bring in Significant Funding’
The Big 3 drug wholesalers in the U.S.–AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Cardinal Health–are enjoying a financial boost this year thanks to the growing use of generic drugs. That’s a bus they hope to ride into 2011 and beyond, when they can expect drug distribution’s next big business-shaker: healthcare reform.
Continue reading ‘Drug Wholesalers Enjoy a Financial Boost This Year’
Third Rock Ventures and Prospect Venture Partners have partnered on a $33 million Series A for NinePoint Medical, a Cambridge, MA-based startup that is developing new technology that can be used to examine gastrointestinal tissue for precancerous and cancerous cells.
Continue reading ‘Diagnostic Startup Receives $33M from Partners’
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