Microbiome drugs developer Kaleido Biosciences is joining the ranks of publicly traded biotechs, but it had to sell more shares and cut their price. The Lexington, MA, company priced its downsized initial public offering of 5 million shares at $15 each, well below the $20 to $22 range it had initially planned. Those shares are […]

Bristol-Myers Squibb’s agreement to acquire Celgene for $74 billion is opposed by the New York pharmaceutical company’s largest institutional investor. Wellington Management Group said Wednesday afternoon that while it agrees Bristol should be active in deals that add new science and expand the company’s revenue potential, Wellington “does not believe that the Celgene transaction is an […]

Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SRPT) has been steadily building up its gene therapy capabilities for a few years now, and it took two more steps forward on that front this morning. First, it exercised an option to buy gene therapy startup Myonexus Therapeutics for $165 million. And then it disclosed early human results from the first […]

Blackstone Life Sciences, the biopharma investing arm of private equity firm Blackstone Group, has made its first strike. It has joined with Novartis (NYSE: NVS) to start a new biotech, Anthos Therapeutics, backed with $250 million in cash and rights to an experimental drug originally discovered by the Swiss firm. The Cambridge, MA, startup, Anthos […]

Seven top pharmaceutical executives gathered today in Washington, DC, for a Senate hearing on drug prices, bringing face-to-face two groups held in the lowest esteem possible by the American public. Top executives from seven companies—AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Sanofi, which represent a combined $1.1 trillion in market value—stuck to […]

San Antonio — Rapamycin Holdings, a life sciences business working to commercialize a new formulation of an immunosuppressant as a prostate cancer drug, has changed its name to Emtora Biosciences and hired a new CEO. Carole Spangler Vaughn is taking over at Emtora for Dan Hargrove, who has spent about 18 months in the chief executive […]

It’s no secret that so-called PARP inhibitors, a new class of cancer drugs, have struggled to gain traction commercially, even as they’ve shown promise treating multiple tumor types. But today brings news that could bolster the future prospect of PARP blockers: one of them, a drug known as olaparib (Lynparza) from AstraZeneca and partner Merck, […]

Dry eye disease affects millions of people in the U.S., and while several treatments, mostly eye drops, are available, they all have flaws. An emerging startup called Oyster Point Pharmaceuticals is trying a completely different approach—a nasal spray that coaxes the body into making tears. And the company just got enough cash to get that […]

[Updated 6:16 p.m. See below.] Plant-based foods and beverages are getting more grocery store shelf space as consumers increasingly shop for meat and milk alternatives. But these products typically carry premium prices because making proteins in a lab is still far more expensive than conventional agriculture. Motif Ingredients says it can use biotechnology and fermentation […]

Novartis has agreed to pay $150 million to Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Boston-based Akcea Therapeutics for the rights to a clinical-stage drug meant to treat patients with abnormally high levels of a protein that is considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The experimental drug, known as AKCEA-APO(a)-LRx by Akcea and TQJ230 by the Swiss pharma […]

Section 32, the venture capital fund based in San Diego’s Cardiff-by-the-Sea community, has raised nearly $200 million for its second fund. A document filed with securities regulators Friday shed light on comments made the previous week to Xconomy by Section 32 founder Bill Maris, who started the firm in 2017. Maris on Feb. 15 confirmed […]

Roche has agreed to buy Spark Therapeutics for $4.8 billion, the latest strong signal that major pharmaceutical companies are ready to gamble on the promise of gene therapy despite its uncertain commercial prospects. The Swiss pharma giant will pay $114.50 per share, in cash, for Spark (NASDAQ: ONCE), a 122 percent premium to the gene […]