Boston Scientific Snags Endo International's Urology Portfolio in Deal Worth $1.65 Billion

March 2, 2015 - Device Space

Specialty healthcare company Endo International is selling its men's health and prostate businesses to Boston Scientific Corp. for $1.6 billion, as it attempts to refocus its efforts on more lucrative parts of its portfolio and regain revenue after a rocky 2014. As part of the deal, Boston Scientific, which enjoyed a nice boost in morning trading Monday on the news, will wrap the new unit into its own urology and women's health department. It also will shell out a potential additional $50 million milestone based on 2016 sales with the deal slated to close in the third quarter of 2015. "We believe this strategic acquisition will strengthen Boston Scientific's global leadership in the urology device category while delivering a strong return to our investors," said Mike Mahoney, president and chief executive officer of Boston Scientific.

March 2, 2015 - Bio Space

Johnson & Johnson has found a buyer for its Cordis unit, a manufacturer of cardiology and endovascular devices, which it put on the market in August 2014 . Cardinal Health has made "a binding offer" to acquire the business for $1.944 billion, Cardinal Health said in a statement released today. When J&J put Cordis on the market in August 2014, a person with knowledge of the matter, told Bloomberg the division could fetch as much as $2 billion, so the purchase price is not a surprise. Cordis had annual sales in 2014 of approximately $780 million, split almost evenly between cardiology and endovascular products. Cardinal, which expressed excitement about the purchase, believes the deal could yield an increase of $.20 per share by 2017 and that "synergies" between the two companies could produce $100 million annually by the end of fiscal 2018 for Cardinal's bottom line.

March 2, 2015 - Pharmaceutical Business Review

US-based generic and specialty pharmaceuticals firm Mylan has completed the acquisition of Abbott Laboratories' non-US developed markets specialty and branded generics business. The acquired business has been reorganized under Mylan N.V., a new public company organized in the Netherlands, which will be led by the former Mylan executive team. As part of the previously announced transaction agreement, Abbott received 110 million shares of the combined company worth about $5.3bn.

March 2, 2015 - Fierce Biotech

For more than a year now, NEA general partner David Mott has helmed Mersana Therapeutics, a Cambridge, MA-based biotech that has been working on next-gen antibody-drug conjugates. But this morning he's handing the reins over to longtime biotech vet Anna Protopapas (while remaining chairman) after organizing a $35 million B round that will be announced later this morning. The B round also involved a personal investment from Elliott Sigal, the former R&D chief at Bristol-Myers Squibb and now a partner at NEA. Rock Springs Capital Management is also coming in as a new investor alongside Pfizer Venture Investments and Fidelity Biosciences.

March 4, 2015 - The Wall Street Journal

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. on Wednesday said it has joined with Bavarian Nordic A/S to exclusively license and commercialize the Danish company's experimental prostate-cancer treatment. The treatment, Prostvac, is an immuno-oncology agent that stimulates the immune system to attack prostate-cancer cells. Bavarian Nordic will receive a $60 million upfront payment, and could receive up to $975 million overall, including regulatory and sales milestone payments.

March 4, 2015 - Bio Space

Novartis AG CEO Joseph Jimenez said this week that the world's largest pharmaceutical company is on the hunt for strategic mergers and acquisitions, telling the Nikkei Asian Review that it will do more deals in 2015, as it attempts to move past tensions with Japanese authorities. "We are considering M&A to build our three big divisions," said Jimenez. "Not very large M&A but what we call "bolt on acquisitions," somewhere between $2-5 billion purchases, where we would just pluck them right into Pharma or Alcon Laboratories, Inc. to strengthen the portfolio. We will do more M&A. Last month that Zurich, Switzerland-based Novartis AG reported that Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare sent the company pre-notification that it would suspend the company's Japanese business unit, Novartis Pharma K.K. temporarily.

March 4, 2015 - Bio Space

Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter International said it would buy privately held German biopharma SuppreMol for $225 million as a way to gain access to the company's early-stage development portfolio of novel biologic immunoregulatory therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Based in Martinsried, Germany, SuppreMol has focused on developing treatments for autoimmune and allergic diseases, an area Baxter said will jibe nicely with its own portfolio. "SuppreMol's portfolio of novel investigational treatments complements and builds upon our leading and differentiated immunology portfolio, offering the opportunity to expand into new areas with significant market potential and unmet medical needs in autoimmune diseases,'' said Ludwig Hantson, president of Baxter BioScience, in a statement.

March 4, 2015 - Pharmaceutical Business Review

AstraZeneca has completed the acquisition of Actavis' branded respiratory business in the US and Canada for an initial consideration of $600m. The deal strengthens AstraZeneca's aclidinium respiratory franchise and builds on the acquisition of Almirall's respiratory portfolio in 2014 by extending the company's development and commercialization rights into the US for both Tudorza Pressair and Duaklir Genuair. AstraZeneca owns the development and commercial rights in the US and Canada to Tudorza Pressair, a twice-daily long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and to Daliresp (roflumilast), the only once-daily oral PDE4 inhibitor currently on the market for COPD, in the US.

March 4, 2015 - Pharmaceutical Business Review

Indian drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has agreed to acquire GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) opiates business in Australia to strengthen its pain management portfolio. As part of the deal, GSK's existing opiates business including related manufacturing sites in Latrobe (Tasmania) and Port Fairy (Victoria), and its portfolio of opiates products along with inventory, will be transferred to Sun Pharma's subsidiary. The acquired business consists of analgesics produced from raw materials found in opium poppy plants to treat moderate to severe pain.

March 4, 2015 - Bio Space

Irish life sciences company Malin announced on Feb. 27 that it intends to raise between $308 million to $365 million for its IPO. Former Elan Corporation chief executive Kelly Martin and chairman Bob Ingram will sit on Malin's board, according to Reuters. Malin will invest in businesses that are too young for their own IPO. The company will provide capital and industry experience that venture capital and private equity funds do not guarantee. Malin told the news source that it has seven firms lined up, including a U.S. disinfection technology distributor. The company also noted that a large portion of its funds have already been committed.

March 4, 2015 - Device Space

Gaithersburg-based molecular diagnostics company OpGen Inc. filed Tuesday to go public in hopes of raising as much as $37.4 million. In its initial regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it would trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol OPGN. It has yet to set a price for the stock or date for the initial public offering, which New York-based Maxim Group LLC will manage.

March 4, 2015 - Device Space

OrthoSensor said it pulled in a funding round worth nearly $17 million that it hopes will eventually add up to $19 million. The Florida maker of knee implant placement technology disclosed the round in a recent regulatory filing. OrthoSensor's Verasense device is designed to help surgeons measure proper placement and motion during total knee replacement procedures.

March 4, 2015 - Pharmaceutical Business Review

Anabolic Laboratories, a manufacturer of pharmaceutical-made nutritional products for healthcare professionals, has selected Emerson Ecologics, a US-based provider of nutritional supplements, vitamins and natural health products, as its distribution partner. The new deal will allow Anabolic to expand its reach into new licensed healthcare practitioner segments and provide customers with added convenience and services.Emerson Ecologics president and CEO Andy Greenawalt said: "We are pleased to add Anabolic Labs to our product portfolio.

March 4, 2015 - Pharmaceutical Business Review

Islet Sciences has entered into a license agreement with Brighthaven Ventures for exclusive rights to develop and commercialize SGLT2 inhibitor remogliflozin, which is currently Phase IIb development for patients with type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Upon effectiveness of the deal, Islet will be granted exclusive rights to remogliflozin in the global territory outside of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, and Latin America. As part of the deal, Islet will pay BHV an upfront fee of $5m, up to $111.85m in development, regulatory and commercial milestones and royalties on net sales.

Mallinckrodt Forks Out $2.3 Billion for Respiratory Drug and Device Maker Ikaria

March 5, 2015 - Bio Space

Biopharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals announced today that it has acquired Ikaria Inc., for $2.3 billion. The transaction will be finalized by the second quarter of 2015, which is Mallinckrodt's fiscal third quarter. As a result of this transaction, a minimum of $150 million in net sales will be added to Mallinckrodt's total for the 2015 fiscal year. Ikaria, a global critical care company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapies for infant patients in hospital neonatal intensive care unit settings. "This transaction demonstrates our ongoing commitment to transform Mallinckrodt into a leading, high-performing specialty biopharmaceutical company with a diverse and durable portfolio," said Mark Trudeau, president and chief executive officer of Mallinckrodt. "We continue to move decisively in line with our strategic roadmap building on key growth platforms and using our unique ability to manage complexity to unlock untapped additional value from diverse products and environments."

March 5, 2015 - Bio Space

Arrowhead Research Corporation (ARWR), a biopharmaceutical company developing targeted RNAi therapeutics, announced today that it has purchased the entire RNAi research and development portfolio of Novartis AG for $35 million. The deal is part of Novartis AG (NVS)' plan to wind down its presence in the RNAi field, a decision the company made in April 2014. Novartis' decision to leave the RNAi field, first reported by Fierce Biotech in April 2014, was correlated with significant drops in the stocks of several players in the field, CNBC noted at the time. The week Novartis discussed its exit from the field, share prices of companies working in RNAi therapeutics, including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ISIS), Regulus Therapeutics, Inc. (RGLS), Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (DRNA) and Tekmira (TKMR) sunk by more than 12 percent as compared with a six percent drop for the Nasdaq biotech index that week.

March 5, 2015 - Pharmaceutical Business Review

Valeant Canada has acquired the Canadian rights for Altace (ramipril) and Altace HCT (ramipril and hydrochlorothiazide) from Sanofi Canada, for the treatment of hypertension, or high blood pressure. The two angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are approved by Health Canada and they will now be commercialized and manufactured locally by Valeant at its Laval, Quebec facility. Population Health Research Institute professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at McMaster University, and director, Vascular Research Ultrasound Laboratory Eva Lonn said: "In the treatment of patients deemed at high-risk of cardiovascular events, ramipril is an excellent first choice of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, and represents a leap in practice for Canadian physicians."

March 5, 2015 - Fierce Biotech

Upstart cancer drug developer Aura Biosciences has rounded up $21 million for its Series B, attracting a large group of backers and keeping former Genzyme CEO and ubiquitous biotech investor Henri Termeer in the game. Termeer followed up his ground-floor investment in the biotech to add another personal bet on Aura, along with another existing investor, LI-COR Biosciences, which also provided the payload Aura is working with. But there's plenty of new money included in this round. Advent Life Sciences led the gamble, with participation from Chiesi Ventures, Ysios Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments.

March 5, 2015 - Pharma Times

Eisai and Merck & Co have signed a deal to put various combinations of their cancer drugs through clinical testing. The clinical trial collaboration will assess the safety, tolerability and efficacy of Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, pembrolizumab (marketed as Keytruda in the US) in combination with Eisai's oncology compounds lenvatinib mesylate (Lenvima in the US) and eribulin mesylate (Halaven) across multiple studies.

March 6, 2015 - The Wall Street Journal

The multibillion-dollar sales potential of a cancer drug that Pharmacyclics Inc. chanced upon nine years ago prompted a three-way bidding war that culminated late Wednesday in AbbVie Inc. 's $21 billion deal to buy the biotech company. Pharmacyclics, until recently a little-known drug developer in Sunnyvale, Calif., paid a mere $6.6 million for the drug and some other experimental compounds during another company's fire sale in 2006. It struck a deal to develop and market the drug, Imbruvica, with Johnson & Johnson , and started selling the treatment in late 2013. Imbruvica's strong efficacy against a form of leukemia and other diseases attracted fierce bidding for Pharmacyclics, from AbbVie, J&J and Pfizer Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

March 6, 2015 - Pharmalot

After years of anticipation, the FDA has approved a so-called biosimilar medicine, ushering in a new era of treatments in the U.S. that are forecast to eventually save the nation's health care system billions of dollars and generate a new round of competition in the pharmaceutical industry. Biosimilars are cheaper copies of brand-name biologics that have demonstrated similar safety and effectiveness. The biosimilar approved by the FDA is a version of Neupogen, a $5.7 billion drug sold by Amgen AMGN -3.46% that is used to thwart infections during chemotherapy. The copycat version will be sold by the Sandoz unit of Novartis NVS -1.34% and marketed as Zarxio. However, the Sandoz drug is not considered interchangeable, which means it cannot automatically be substituted at pharmacies.

March 6, 2015 - Pharmaceutical Business Review

US-based biopharmaceutical firm Arrowhead Research has acquired Swiss firm Novartis' complete RNAi research and development portfolio and associated assets. The acquisition includes assignment of certain patents and patent applications owned or controlled by the Swiss firm related to RNAi therapeutics. The deal also comprises of an exclusive license in the RNAi field to other patents and patent applications owned or controlled by Novartis, assignment of a third party license, three pre-clinical RNAi candidates and other related assets.

March 6, 2015 - Bio Space

Dublin, Ireland-based Amarin Corporation plc announced today that it had signed a definitive securities subscription agreement with several institutional investors. The group is made up of both existing and new investors. The agreement calls for the private placement of up to $52,822,618.50 of restricted American Depositary Shares. Each share represents one share of Amarin's Series A Convertible Preference Shares, which currently have a value of �0.50 per share. The company's stock had a huge jump in February, climbing 48 percent after receiving an upgrade from Wall Street company SunTrust Bank and the announcement of a licensing agreement with China for its drug Vascepa. SunTrust upgraded Amarin from "neutral" to "buy" and set a $6 price target on the stock, which suggested a 500 percent upside.

March 6, 2015 - Device Space

EndoChoice� today announced the close of a $57 million preferred equity financing. New investors Deerfield, Ally Bridge Group and Rock Springs Capital joined Sequoia Capital and previous investors in the financing. Proceeds will go toward continued expansion of sales and marketing efforts of the Fuse Full Spectrum Endoscopy� platform. "We are delighted to be able to lead this financing round for EndoChoice," said Steven Hochberg, Partner at Deerfield. "This is a unique opportunity to invest in a company that has a broad range of GI products and services, a track record of seven years of growth, and an exciting, new endoscopy technology that promises to improve clinical outcomes while lowering healthcare cost for payors." Mr. Hochberg will join EndoChoice's Board of Directors as an observer.