By John Carroll Celgene and Acceleron are taking their drug development relationship one big step forward in a new direction. Celgene announced this morning that is partnering up with Acceleron on a new, early-stage approach to treating anemia, paying $25 million upfront and promising $217 million in milestones to partner on ACE-536. Acceleron will keep …
By John Carroll No one working in the drug development world would be surprised to hear that some of the biggest pharma companies in the world have had a colossal meltdown on the R&D side of the business. The past decade for Pfizer and others has been marked by repeated clinical failures despite multibillion-dollar research budgets. Matthew …
By Ryan McBride Weston, MA – With an enviable late-stage pipeline, Biogen Idec ($BIIB) is working in earnest to build up its roster of drugs in the early and middle stages of clinical development. And the big biotech is expediting its internal research and seeking outside deals to restock its R&D pond. Weston, MA-based Biogen Idec …
By John Carroll The UK’s Vernalis has picked up a key endorsement from Novartis, a Big Pharma company with a growing reputation for picking winners in the pipeline. On the same day that Novartis wowed analysts with a big second quarter finish the Swiss company tapped Vernalis’s experimental tumor treatment–AUY922, which it is collaborating on …
By John Carroll When Tachi Yamada left pharma to spearhead development work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he had plenty of doubts about the development model that was being shaped there. But now that he’s headed into the venture capital world, he’s taking along a playbook he helped write which could offer biopharma …
By Ryan McBride This summer’s been somewhat tame on the biotech mergers front. It’s lacked a blockbuster deal on par with Sanofi’s buyout of Genzyme, reports of which began last summer and kept biotech reporters chasing to tidbits of news for months. Now industry watchers tell Reuters that cancer drug firms like Dendreon ($DNDN), Seattle …
By Tracy Staton Sanofi ($SNY) has agreed to offload its Dermik skincare business to Valeant Pharmaceuticals ($VRX) in a $425 million deal that gives the Canadian drugmaker brands such as the acne treatment BenzaClin and wrinkle-filler Sculptra. It also allows Sanofi to focus more tightly on what CEO Christopher Viehbacher (photo) calls its “growth platforms.” …
By Ryan McBride Sanofi is seeing its increased focus on biotech drugs go according to plan, with positive results today from a late-stage trial of a multiple sclerosis treatment, Lemtrada, which the French drugmaker picked up through its $20 billion-plus buyout of biotech powerhouse Genzyme earlier this year. The study was an overall success, according …
By Ryan McBride Pfizer chief Ian Read’s (photo) strategy to make the drug giant a more focused machine is gaining some kudos–especially as it relates to how this strategy could boost the firm’s top pipeline candidates. On the heels of Pfizer revealing plans to potentially offload its animal health and nutritional products divisions, Bloomberg reports this morning that the …
By John Carroll Reengineering a Big Pharma pipeline is no easy task, as Meeta Chatterjee, Merck’s head of global outlicensing and asset management, explains to Lisa Jarvis at Chemical & Engineering News. Unlike some of its rivals like GlaxoSmithKline, which chopped off entire therapeutic areas in order to gain a sharper focus on its most promising …
