Arena Pharma soars on deal with United Therapeutics for hypertension drug
Shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc jumped nearly 30 percent after the drug developer sold rights to develop and sell its hypertension treatment to United Therapeutics Corp, fetching it $800 million in an upfront payment. Arena Pharma said the money will help it prepare for the eventual launch of its bowel disorder drugs.
United Therapeutics pays $800M-plus to grab Arena’s PhIII PAH drug
United Therapeutics $UTHR is paying an $800 million cash upfront in a big bet to stay among the leaders in pulmonary arterial hypertension, grabbing rights to Arena Pharmaceuticals’ ralinepag in the deal. And the executive crew is willing to add hundreds of millions more in milestones if they can stay on track through to an approval and commercialization.
Quantum Genomics’ brain-targeting blood pressure drug meets phase 2b endpoints
Quantum Genomics’ blood pressure drug firibastat, an inhibitor that targets aminopeptidase A in the brain, met its primary endpoint in a phase 2b study—which the company says paves the way for a wider phase 3 trial in more resistant hypertension.
Wnt is back in drugmakers’ sights, but is it druggable?
See author Cormac Sheridan’s discussion of the biotech industry members developing therapeutics based on targeting the Wnt pathway in this issue of Nature Biotech. Included in the report is Samumed, a company developing a Wnt-targeted therapy for the treatment of Osteoarthritis and other prevalent diseases.
Clinical Challenges: Can OA Be Stopped?
A small-molecule intra-articular Wnt pathway inhibitor, SM04690, is being developed and the results of a phase IIb trial were presented at the ACR meeting by Yusuf Yazici, MD, of NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City and Samumed, LLC, in San Diego.
Buoyed By Phase III Rosacea Success, Foamix Plans Commercial Transition
Market of dermatologists prescribing for rosacea and acne is very focused, so Foamix says it can manage commercialization of topical minocycline foam on its own.
Oxurion introduces new clinical portfolio at OIS
CHICAGO: At the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit at AAO, Patrik De Haes, MD, CEO of Oxurion, introduces the company’s new clinical portfolio with three separate molecules in clinical trials for the treatment of diabetic macular edema.
