An experimental breast cancer drug from Seattle Genetics is headed for FDA review after the company reported a pivotal clinical trial met its main goals. The company has been testing tucatinib as a treatment for advanced or metastatic breast cancer with abnormally high levels of a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), […]

Cancer therapies that harness the immune system don’t work for all patients. Verseau Therapeutics aims to bring cancer immunotherapy to more people by targeting a type of immune cell present in the vast majority of tumors and directing it to fight the disease. Verseau launched Monday backed by $50 million in financing. The Bedford, MA-based […]

Enzyvant, a Cambridge, MA-based rare disease drug developer, has appointed Jeb Ledell as its chief operating officer. Ledell previously held COO roles at Cambridge-based Compass Therapeutics and at Horizon Discovery Group, a genomics company in the UK. Enzyvant’s lead candidate, RVT-802, a regenerative treatment for pediatric congenital athymia, is expected to receive an FDA decision in […]

Amy Peterson has joined CytomX Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CTMX) as executive vice president and chief development officer. Peterson was most recently chief medical officer of immune-oncology at BeiGene (NASDAQ: BGNE). Her experience also includes positions at Medivation and Roche subsidiary Genentech. South San Francisco-based CytomX is developing antibody drugs that treat cancer.

An experimental drug that was the centerpiece of a $1.6 billion Eli Lilly acquisition last year has now failed a pivotal test in pancreatic cancer. Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) said Wednesday that patients treated with its drug candidate pegilodecakin, plus chemotherapy, did not live longer than patients treated with chemotherapy alone, falling short of the […]

Dan Browne has stepped down as president and CEO of Revance Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RVNC) due to what the company describes as “a misjudgement in handling an employee matter.” The Newark, CA-based drug developer gave no other details. Browne has also resigned from Revance’s board of directors. Browne, a Revance co-founder, had been its CEO since […]

Eli Lilly won FDA approval for a migraine drug on Friday, giving the pharmaceutical giant a second medication that addresses the condition that causes millions of people to experience severe headaches and other debilitating symptoms. The FDA approved the drug, lasmiditan (Reyvow), as a treatment for acute migraine; it’s meant to be taken after the […]

Ra Pharmaceuticals, whose lead autoimmune disease drug candidate is viewed as a potential alternative to one of the most expensive medicines in the world, is being acquired by Belgian pharmaceuticals giant UCB in a $2.1 billion deal. According to terms announced Thursday, UCB will pay $48 in cash for each Ra Pharma share. That’s a […]

Matthew Young has been appointed chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Grail. He will start his new job at the Menlo Park, CA-based liquid biopsy developer on Oct. 28. Young is coming to Grail from Jazz Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: JAZZ), where he is executive vice president and chief financial officer. His new appointment is […]

It’s time to catch up on some of the latest happenings across Wisconsin’s innovation communities: —Shine Medical Technologies said it struck a deal to receive $50 million in financing from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management. The money will support the ongoing construction of Shine’s medical isotope production facility in Janesville, as well as Shine’s […]

How did Phil Sharp, a kid from a small farm in Kentucky, become a Nobel prize winner and one of the godfathers of the biotech industry? How did Christine McSherry turn her youngest son’s devastating diagnosis into a crusade that aided in the approval of a drug for his disease? Sharp (pictured above) and McSherry […]

This summer Nestlé Health Science sold Prometheus Laboratories, a gastrointestinal disease diagnostics unit it had acquired eight years prior, to a low-profile San Diego biotech called Precision IBD. About a month ago, Precision—a drug and diagnostic developer that’s focused, as its name suggests, on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)—changed its name to Prometheus Biosciences and tapped […]