 BioPharma Dealmakers
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| Industry continues dabbling with open innovation models
December, 2011
Nature Biotechnology
On October 26, seven large pharma companies and a biotech firm, Alnylam, announced a collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to establish WIPO Re:Search. This open innovation initiative lines up United Nations agency WIPO of Geneva with Washington, DC–based BIO Ventures for Global Health, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), drug companies and academic institutions in an effort to share intellectual property (IP) and resources that can speed drug discovery in 19 neglected tropical diseases, as well as malaria and tuberculosis. A month earlier, the Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly launched its Open Innovation Drug Discovery initiative, an extension of its earlier free web-based screening tool called Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative (PD2). And on November 3, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, of La Jolla, California, became the latest addition to New York–based Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTIs), an open innovation network focusing on biologics, which also offers participating investigators access to certain 'select' Pfizer compound libraries. Pharma has been tinkering in open-source collaborations, but many in industry remain skeptical. “Let's give it time—but not too much time,” says Werner Lanthaler, CEO of Hamburg, Germany–based drug developer Evotec.
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| New startup models emerge as investor landscape shifts
December, 2011
Nature Biotechnology
Two Cambridge, Massachusetts–based startups are among this year's financings that depart from traditional venture models. In October, neurology startup Sage Therapeutics raised $35 million in a Series A round from a single fund; and three months earlier, Nimbus Discovery attracted financing from a syndicate of three funds, receiving $24 million in a Series A round. The financings exemplify the creative ways by which venture capital (VC) firms are overcoming the challenging timelines and restricted exits for early-stage life sciences investments.
Sage Therapeutics was founded by Third Rock Ventures of Boston, which installed ten advisors and provided the entire tranche of Series A funding. The idea was to bring together leaders in the field while also ensuring the financial power needed for growth, avoiding “the old pattern of a $5 million Series A, which is kind of a bridge to nowhere,” says Kevin Starr, partner at Third Rock.
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| New HCV drugs trigger race for more tolerable therapies
December, 2011
Nature Medicine
The approval this year of the first direct-acting antiviral drugs for the hepatitis C virus has ushered in a new era of treatment. Since the mid-May launch of Incivek (telaprevir) and Victrelis (boceprevir)—both of which disrupt viral replication by inhibiting HCV's protease protein—physicians have rapidly been prescribing the pills to many of the estimated 180 million people worldwide who are infected with HCV. This is reflected in October earnings reports showing that sales of Incivek reached nearly $420 million in the third quarter of this year alone, which puts it on pace to become the fastest blockbuster in the history of the pharmaceutical industry.
But Incivek, from Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Victrelis, from Merck of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, currently have a catch. Each medicine must be taken with a broad-acting antiviral pill called ribavirin as well as with regular injections of pegylated interferon. Historically, viral clearance occurs in around half of all people who take interferon together with ribavirin, but another 20% can be cured of their HCV when doctors throw one of the new polymerase inhibitors into the mix. Interferon stimulates the immune system but comes with side effects ranging from flu-like fatigue to severe depression to cardiac arrhythmias. Up to a third of people on the protein ultimately stop the therapy early because of adverse reactions.
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| Deal watch: MicroRNA collaboration to target cardiovascular disease pathways
December, 2011
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
Les Laboratoires Servier and MiRagen Therapeutics have agreed to jointly research, develop and commercialize three preclinical-stage oligonucleotide microRNA inhibitors — targeting microRNA-208 (miR208), miR-15/195 and an unidentified miRNA — for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. MiRagen will receive an upfront fee of US$45 million, with additional milestone payments and clinical development support from Servier valuing the deal at up to $1 billion. Servier will receive worldwide rights, excluding the United States and Japan.
MicroRNAs — small, non-coding single-stranded RNAs — bind to complementary sequences of mRNA transcripts and negatively regulate gene expression through repression of translation or destabilization of the mRNA, typically targeting multiple functionally related genes to control entire biological pathways. They are implicated in an increasing number of biological and disease processes and are therefore intriguing targets for therapeutic intervention.
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