Ligand Pharmaceuticals plans to acquire recombinant protein therapeutics maker Pfenex for $438 million, the companies announced Monday. The larger company agreed to pay $12 per share for Pfenex (NYSE American: PFNX)—a 57 percent premium to its closing price Monday. San Diego-based Ligand (NASDAQ: LGND) generates revenue from licensing deals and royalties paid by pharmaceutical companies […]

Results from four studies within a major Roche-run clinical trials program of an investigational gut disease drug have muddled the antibody’s path forward after its performance proved mixed. The company has been studying etrolizumab, an antibody designed to block two members of a family of proteins called integrins, as a potential treatment for the two […]

The FDA on Friday approved a new spinal muscular atrophy drug that patients can take at home. Risdiplam (Evrysdi) is a liquid medicine intended for daily use that was developed by Roche subsidiary Genentech in partnership with the SMA Foundation and South Plainfield, NJ-based PTC Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTCT). Regulators OK’d the drug, intended for daily […]

Patients with advanced multiple myeloma have a new treatment option with the FDA’s approval of a GlaxoSmithKline drug that targets B-cell maturation antigen, a protein found on the surface of cancerous plasma cells. The agency OK’d the London-based pharma giant’s cancer drug, belantamab mafodotin (Blenrep), based on the results of a study in which patients […]

Robert Zeldin has joined gene therapy developer MeiraGTx as its chief medical officer. Most recently he held the same role at Immunovant (NASDAQ: IMVT). Prior Zeldin served as CMO at Acceleron Pharma (NASDAQ: XLRN) and at Ablynx. His experience also includes time at Stallergenes, Novartis (NYSE: NVS), and Merck, as well as a stint with […]

Black Diamond Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BDTX) has appointed Fang Ni to serve as its chief business officer. Ni has held the role on an interim basis since the company emerged from stealth in late 2018. Ni was most recently a principal and member of the investment team at Versant Ventures, which incubated Black Diamond before launching it […]

Yuan Xu, the CEO of Legend Biotech (NASDAQ: LEGN) for the past two years, has resigned for “personal reasons,” the company announced Sunday. No other details were given. She has also stepped down from the Somerset, NJ, company’s board of directors. Frank Zhang, chairman of Legend’s board and CEO of GenScript, the biotech’s largest shareholder, […]

Kymera Therapeutics has a pipeline of preclinical drug candidates that use an experimental approach to get rid of disease-causing proteins and it’s now looking to tap the public markets to finance tests of the technology in humans. In paperwork submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Kymera set a $100 million goal for […]

Another biopharma has signed up to use Sangamo Therapeutics’ gene editing technology to develop therapies that can address disease by heightening or depressing a gene’s activity level. Sangamo on Thursday announced that Novartis (NYSE: NVS) had agreed to shell out $75 million up front to leverage the biotech’s genome regulation technology to treat certain neurodevelopmental […]

Public investors are betting big on biotechs, and Inhibrx is looking to capitalize on the industry’s recent resurgence of initial public offerings. The La Jolla, CA-based company, which is developing drugs for cancer and a rare respiratory disease, has again applied for a listing on the Nasdaq, a filing that comes more than a year […]

Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine research started with multiple approaches—four shots on the messenger RNA goal. The partners have narrowed their choices to one for pivotal testing, and that candidate takes the same tack as other companies trying to address the novel coronavirus. BNT162b2, the vaccine candidate that Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) […]

Telemedicine isn’t just another way to connect patients with doctors. AristaMD has carved out a niche in connecting doctors with, well, other doctors. The San Diego-based telehealth company’s software links primary care physicians and medical specialists through virtual consultations, communication that is intended to reduce healthcare costs by slimming down the number of referrals made […]