GSK

BBM Offers to Acquire YM BioSciences for $29M

By Eben Tessari ⋅ November 14, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Talk about a tough market, according to a recent report, half of all biotech’s with a market cap under $200M are trading for less than cash on hand. YM Biosciences is no exception and BBM is trying to snag a bargain.
Under BBM’s proposal, BBM would acquire all of the outstanding shares of YMI common [...]

GlaxoSmithKline to acquires Genelabs Technologies for $57M

By Eben Tessari ⋅ October 30, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I’m a huge fan of early stage deals with lots of upside and a cost under $75M.
GlaxoSmithKline, looking to shore up their hepatitis C pipeline, announced that they have entered into an agreement with Genelabs Technologies for approximately $57 million (£35 million) through a tender offer of $1.30 per share in cash.

View the full GNLB [...]

GlaxoSmithKline and AFFiRiS Ink Alzheimer’s Disease Vaccine Deal

By Eben Tessari ⋅ October 23, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and AFFiRiS GmbH announced the execution of a collaboration agreement granting GSK exclusive rights to AFFiRiS’s Alzheimer’s disease vaccine programmes, aimed at treating Alzheimer’s by targeting beta-amyloid.
As part of the agreement, GSK is acquiring exclusive rights to develop and commercialise two Alzheimer’s disease vaccine candidates that are based on AFFiRiS AFFiTOPE technology and [...]

GSK and Cellzome Announce Alliance over Kinase Technology

By Eben Tessari ⋅ September 10, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Cellzome is a privately-owned drug discovery company identifying a new generation of kinase-targeted drugs to treat inflammatory diseases. Its pipeline of small-molecule therapeutics is driven by Kinobeads(TM), a proprietary technology for screening and profiling kinases in relevant cells and tissues.
Under the agreement GSK has exclusive options to license drug candidates from Cellzome’s kinase programs directed [...]

BMS Offers to Buy The Rest of ImClone

By Eben Tessari ⋅ July 31, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

In a regulatory filing this morning, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced it has offered to buy the 83% of ImClone it doesn’t already own for an all cash, $60/share or $4.5B. This offer represented a 30% premium over yesterday’s close but already in premarket trading, ImClone has hit $65/share.
I’ve been trying to figure BMS out for [...]

Big Pharma Tries to Shake Things Up

By Eben Tessari ⋅ June 10, 2008 ⋅ One comment

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

GSK to shake-up research strategies (Financial Times)
UCSF, Pfizer sign collaborative research deal (San Fransisco Chronicle )
Both Via Pharmalot
It’s no secret that big pharma players have some work to do on their late-state pipeline and that they are collectively grasping at straws trying to bring in revenue.
Clearly, deciding to reorganize your [...]

FDA Likes Promacta

By Eben Tessari ⋅ May 30, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

A few days ago, I scratched my head in amusement over GSK / Ligand’s decision to submit and NDA based on non-statistically significant results for their thrombocytopenia drug, Promacta.
Well, the scientific advisory committee (after lambasting the drug on Wednesday) unanimously voted in favor of the drug today.
Sometimes, I’m pretty sure I’ll never understand the regulatory [...]

GSK submits non-statistically significant NDA for Promacta

By Eben Tessari ⋅ May 28, 2008 ⋅ One comment

An FDA reviewer said that Promacta, an experimental platelet-boosting drug seeking an indication for acute treatment of chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura from GSK, did not help control bleeding any better than a placebo. The reviewer wrote:
“The data provided in this NDA (new drug application) do not demonstrate statistically significant, robust … treatment effect in decreasing [...]

Financing for Concert Pharmaceuticals

By Eben Tessari ⋅ April 30, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

CoNCERT Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Raises $37 Million in Series C Financing
CoNCERT Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced the closing of a $37 million Series C financing today. The Company intends to use the proceeds to further advance its deuterium chemistry platform and product pipeline. The financing was led by a leading public equity institutional investor and included participation [...]

Elixir Hoping to Cash In On Sirtuins Too After GSK / Sirtris Deal

By Eben Tessari ⋅ April 28, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

For the first time in almost 10 months, and not surprisingly, coming on the heels of the GSK / Sirtris buyout that occurred last week, Elixir Pharmaceuticals has announced that they have been granted a patent for a class of SIRT2 regulators. I came down as pretty negative on the Sirtris deal in [...]

GlaxoSmithKline Buys Sirtris for $720M

By Eben Tessari ⋅ April 22, 2008 ⋅ 2 comments

GSK just paid $720M (22.50/share or an 84% premium) for a company with one phase II compound that… well… wasn’t shy about publicizing itself. Take this quote from CEO Chris Westphal for instance, “the first group to have ever targeted an anti-aging gene to treat a disease of aging.” Aside from being not [...]

Treximet… Finally!

By Eben Tessari ⋅ April 17, 2008 ⋅ One comment

I’ve been having migraines lately, well for the last few years. Terrible migraines. Migraines so debilitating only a combination of acutely acting medicines could even touch the pain. The problem was, up until now (finally, after a two year delay), I had to open two bottles of medicine, remove a few pills [...]

Top Biopharma Deals Q1 ‘08

By Eben Tessari ⋅ March 27, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

It’s a just a quarter of the way into 2008 and it is clear the both large
biotech and pharma have holes to fill in thier pipeline. Six deals have
already been inked that total over a half a billion bio-dollars each.
Below are 4 of the top deals thus far:
Genzyme/Isis ($1,900M) - Genzyme paid Isis $175M in
cash [...]