News

SAN FRANCISCO & BALLERUP, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Danish dermatology specialists LEO Pharma and California rare disease pioneers PellePharm today announced a strategic development and commercialization collaboration to address unmet medical needs across various skin diseases with no approved treatments, advancing innovation and access to potential therapies for patients with life-altering conditions, such as Gorlin Syndrome and High Frequency Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), two distinct and rare forms of skin cancer. Under the terms of the agreement, LEO Pharma has initially committed $70 million comprised of equity financing and financial R&D support to fund the global Phase 3 trial for patidegib topical gel 2% for the prevention and treatment of Gorlin Syndrome, with LEO Pharma securing an option to acquire all shares in PellePharm. PellePharm and its stockholders could receive up to an additional $690 million including merger consideration, and regulatory and commercial milestone payments. In addition, PellePharm stockholders are eligible to receive a double-digit royalty after achieving certain commercial milestones.

BRISBANE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 2018-- Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:AIMT), a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for potentially life-threatening food allergies, today announced that the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has published the full results of the landmark phase 3 PALISADE clinical trial of AR101, Aimmune’s investigational biologic oral immunotherapy for desensitization of patients with peanut allergy. PALISADE is the largest and first successful phase 3 peanut allergy immunotherapy trial to date.

BRISBANE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2018-- Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:AIMT), a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for potentially life-threatening food allergies, today announced that Nestlé Health Science will make an additional equity investment in Aimmune of $98 million, increasing Nestlé Health Science’s ownership of Aimmune to approximately 19 percent. Aimmune and Nestlé Health Science also entered into a two-year extension of their original two-year strategic collaboration agreement, focused on offering innovative food allergy therapies. The agreement does not contain any partnership, collaboration, or negotiation restrictions on Aimmune. Aimmune retains all rights to its current and future pipeline assets, and Aimmune and Nestlé Health Science will collaborate towards successful development of such assets.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eidos Therapeutics, Inc. (Eidos) (Nasdaq:EIDX), today announced positive results of its Phase 2 clinical trial studying AG10 in subjects with symptomatic transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM). The data were presented in a late-breaking Featured Science oral presentation at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions. AG10 was well tolerated, demonstrated >90% TTR average stabilization at day 28, and increased serum TTR concentrations, a prognostic indicator of survival in ATTR-CM, in a dose-dependent manner. Subject to discussions with regulatory agencies, these data support the advancement of AG10 into Phase 3 pivotal trials planned to be initiated in the first half of 2019.

Todd Pope, TransEnterix President and CEO, was recently named to TIME's "The 50 Most Influential People in Health Care of 2018." The list honors fifty people transforming health care, across public health, treatments, cost and technology. Aisling would like to congratulate Todd and the TransEnterix team, as well as the other honorees, and thank them for their continued commitment to innovation in the health care system. From TIME: “It’s not just good enough to introduce some interesting technology that can benefit patients,” Pope says. “It also has to fit within a constrained budget environment.” For the full feature, please visit this link.

Jacksonville, FL, October 17, 2018 —TapImmune Inc. (NASDAQ: TPIV), today announced the closing of the previously announced merger with privately-held Marker Therapeutics, Inc. In connection with the merger, TapImmune Inc. changed its name to Marker Therapeutics, Inc., and reincorporated from Nevada into Delaware. The combined company will focus on the continued development and commercialization of T cell therapies. Beginning Thursday, October 18, 2018, the Company’s stock will begin trading under the new ticker symbol “MRKR” on the Nasdaq Capital Market and will have a new CUSIP number, 57055L 107. “The closing of this merger marks a significant milestone, since the combined company is well-positioned to become a leader in cancer immunotherapy, with potentially transformative therapies,” said Peter Hoang, CEO of Marker Therapeutics, Inc. “The combined company will have exponentially superior capabilities and resources than either company had alone. With the transaction completed, we can now push our clinical trials forward more efficiently with the full resources available to the combined company. We are confident that our therapies can fundamentally improve therapeutic outcomes for patients with life-threatening diseases, and drive life-changing results for patients suffering from a variety of terrible cancers.”

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aeglea BioTherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AGLE), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that designs and develops innovative human enzyme therapeutics for patients with rare genetic diseases and cancer, today announced new positive interim clinical data at the 2018 American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) Conference from its ongoing Phase 1/2 trial of pegzilarginase, its lead investigational therapy, in patients with the rare genetic disease Arginase 1 Deficiency (ARG1D). “Our clinical experience with ARG1D and pegzilarginase has advanced rapidly given the accelerated enrollment over the last few months. The developing efficacy profile is compelling, particularly given the short period of repeat dosing,” said Anthony G. Quinn, M.B Ch.B, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Aeglea. “We are pleased with the recently granted rare pediatric disease designation and we will continue to collaborate closely with the FDA and EMA on the design of our pivotal trial.”

RAMSEY, N.J. and BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ADMA Biologics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADMA) (“ADMA” or the “Company”), a vertically integrated commercial biopharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets specialty plasma-based biologics for the treatment of Primary Immune Deficiency Disease (“PIDD”) and the prevention and treatment of certain infectious diseases, announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has acknowledged the receipt of ADMA’s September 28, 2018 BLA resubmission for RI-002.  The FDA stated that it considers the RI-002 BLA resubmission ‘a complete, Class 2 response’ and has established an action due date of April 2, 2019, under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (“PDUFA”).

WAYNE, Pa., Oct. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACRS), a dermatologist-led biopharmaceutical company focused on identifying, developing, and commercializing innovative therapies to address significant unmet patient needs in aesthetic and medical dermatology and immunology, today announced it has entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement with Allergan Sales, LLC to acquire worldwide rights to RHOFADE® (oxymetazoline hydrochloride) cream, 1% and additional intellectual property. The acquisition includes an exclusive license to certain intellectual property for RHOFADE, which is approved for the topical treatment of persistent facial erythema (redness) associated with rosacea in adults. This transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including certain governmental regulatory clearances, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018. Allergan has agreed to provide support to Aclaris to allow for a smooth transition of RHOFADE.

STAMFORD, Conn., Oct. 06, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Loxo Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: LOXO), a biopharmaceutical company developing highly selective medicines for patients with genomically defined cancers, today announced updated interim clinical data for LOXO-292 from the global Phase 1/2 LIBRETTO-001 trial in patients with RET-mutant medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) and RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer who were initially included in the LOXO-292 presentation at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting. In these 38 patients, approximately 3.5 months of additional patient follow-up were available, as were first follow-up scans for the nine patients most recently enrolled. Sixteen of 17 (94%) responding RET-mutant MTC patients remained on therapy, with median follow-up of 8.4 months. Seven of seven (100%) responding RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer patients remained on therapy, with median follow-up of 8.5 months. Inclusion of new restaging data for the most recently enrolled patients resulted in a 59% overall response rate (56% confirmed overall response rate) in the presented subset of RET-mutant MTC patients, and a 78% confirmed overall response rate in the presented subset of RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer patients. These data are being presented today at the 88th Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association.