Targacept gets $200M payment from AstraZeneca

Targacept has received a hefty $200 million milestone payment from AstraZeneca. The money is part of a deal signed in December that could be worth up to $1.2 billion. Targacept is developing TC-5214, a drug for major depressive disorder (MDD), which is headed into Phase III trials this year. The milestone payment was triggered by the early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. Targacept and AstraZeneca hope to file an NDA for TC-5214 as a...

Galapagos, Roche enter $588.7M COPD alliance

Galapagos and Roche have entered a global alliance to develop new COPD therapies in a deal worth almost $590 million (€406 million). Galapagos will use its discovery platform to identify potential COPD targets and develop small molecule candidates against the targets. Roche will select the candidates it wants to develop after either clinical candidate selection or completion of Phase I trials. The company will then be fully responsible for further development of the drugs it licenses....

GE Foundation Grant to AmeriCares Expands Access to Better Healthcare For More Than 250 Clinics Nationwide

In an effort to increase Americans' access to quality healthcare across the country, the GE Foundation, the philanthropic organization of GE, has awarded a $650,000 grant to AmeriCares, expanding the reach of GE's Developing Health program. Developing Health is a 3-year, $25 million commitment that provides grant funding and employee engagement to selected healthcare centers across the United States, focusing on delivering primary care and access to quality...

Intuity Medical secures $64M Series D financing round

Intuity Medical, Inc., a privately-held company developing innovative technologies in diabetes management, today announced that it has secured a $64M Series D financing...

Rigel Pharmaceuticals announces milestone payment from Daiichi Sankyo

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has received a milestone payment from Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. as part of their collaboration to research and develop cancer treatments aimed at selectively inhibiting ligases, which are intrinsic to cancer cell growth and proliferation. The compound, as yet unnamed, targets cell...

PTC picks up $50M in financing

PTC Therapeutics got an early Christmas gift this morning in the form of $50 million in financing. The round--PTC's first syndicated equity financing round in over four years--was led by new investor The Column Group and existing investor Delphi Ventures. PTC garnered a great deal of interest last year when the company turned in good data for ataluren (PTC124), a therapy currently undergoing trials for the treatment of cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). And there's...

Oxford Finance to provide Titan Pharmaceuticals a $3M term loan

Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that it has entered into a Loan and Security Agreement with Oxford Finance Corporation ("Oxford") for a $3 million term loan. The loan will bear interest at an approximate rate of 13% per annum and be payable over three years. Under the terms of the agreement, Titan will pay Oxford an initial facility fee of $60,000 and a final payment fee of...

OncoGenex scores $430 million deal, but shares slide

Teva Pharmaceuticals is paying OncoGenex $60 million in initial payments--including a $10 million equity stake--for partnership rights to a new drug aimed at enhancing the effects of chemo.  But news of the $430 million deal, which includes Teva's commitment to buy a chunk of the developer's stock at a premium, triggered a sell-off in OncoGenex, which saw its shares slide 23...

On a roll, Seattle Genetics inks $1.1B in new deals

Seattle Genetics is on a deal-making roll. The developer announced a $402 million pact--including an upfront of $12 million--with GlaxoSmithKline to employ the developer's antibody-drug conjugate technology with multiple antigens to be named by GSK. Just a week ago Takeda's Millennium plunked down $60 million upfront and promised up to $230 million in milestones and $75 million in research funds for a commercialization deal covering the Phase III drug candidate brentuximab vedotin (SGN-35)....

Investigation of IDH1 gene mutations in brain cancer receives new funds

Agios Pharmaceuticals, the leading biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel drugs in the emerging field of cancer metabolism, announced today that it has received funding from Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2), a non-profit organization that supports brain cancer research. ABC2’s funding will enable new research investigating IDH1 gene mutations in brain cancer, with the goal of supplementing Agios’s ongoing research into the development of new IDH1...