Emergent buys Trubion for up to $135M

Emergent BioSolutions is buying Trubion Pharmaceuticals for $96.8 million up front and up to $38.7 million of success-based milestones. Emergent gains Trubion's two clinical-stage product candidates for oncology and autoimmunity. The company also gains Trubion's two platforms--Small Modular Immunopharmaceutic (SMIPTM) and SCORPIONTM technologies--which could help develop additional drugs. Emergent will maintain research facilities in Seattle, WA, where Trubion is currently...

Trubion slumps after Pfizer kills lead RA drug program

Shares of Seattle-based Trubion Pharmaceuticals (TRBN) slumped after Pfizer announced that it was dumping the development program for its lead rheumatoid arthritis drug. TRU-015 had been Trubion's first shot at a best-in-class CD20 therapy that could compete with Rituxan. But in a mid-stage clinical trial--in which TRU-015 was combined with methotrexate--the drug failed to provide a statistically superior to the placebo plus methotrexate, which registered an unusually high response. "Given...

Pfizer developing “bio-betters,” seeking rare blood disorder drugs

Anyone doubting Big Pharma's interest in developing biotech drugs should check out a new report in the Wall Street Journal detailing Pfizer's work on three large molecules now in mid-stage development. Dow Jones, meanwhile, reports that Andrew Callos, vice president of commercial development of endocrinology and hematology in Pfizer's specialty-care unit, is seeking new pacts on programs for rare blood disorders. "A lot of these smaller disease needs have gone unmet," Callos told the news...