Actavis Acquires Kadian from King Pharmaceuticals
Actavis has acquired the brand name drug Kadian from King Pharmaceuticals for not more than US$127.5 million. The acquisition of Kadian is the latest step in Actavis’ strategy to expand their specialty drug portfolio.
December 31, 2008
Novartis Acquires License to CMV Vaccine Candidate from AlphaVax Inc.
Novartis has strengthened its vaccines pipeline through an exclusive agreement to license AlphaVax’ investigational Cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine program.
December 29, 2008
Urigen Amends Its Core UCSD License for URG101
Urigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has amended its license agreement with the University of California at San Diego for intellectual property covering Urigen’s URG101 program for Painful Bladder Syndrome.
December 29, 2008
Sosei Buys Back Commercialization Rights to AD 923
Sosei Group Corporation reacquired the rights for commercialization of AD 923 from Mundipharma International Corporation Ltd.
December 26, 2008
King Pharmaceuticals Licenses Fourth Opioid Product from Acura Pharmaceuticals
Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that King has exercised its option to license a fourth immediate-release opioid analgesic product candidate utilizing Acura’s proprietary Aversion Technology.
December 24, 2008
GlaxoSmithKline, Archemix Collaborate on Drugs for Inflammatory Diseases
GlaxoSmithKline and Archemix Corp. announced a worldwide strategic alliance to discover, develop, and commercialize aptamer therapeutics to treat inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.
December 23, 2008
VIA Pharmaceuticals Licenses Drug Candidates from Roche
VIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced exclusive, worldwide licensing agreements with Roche for two sets of compounds to expand its cardiovascular pipeline to include metabolic disease.
December 23, 2008
Alnylam Files First IND for an RNAi Therapeutic Utilizing SNALP
Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation announced that one of the company’s collaborators, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., has filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking approval to begin a human clinical trial for a product candidate utilizing Tekmira’s SNALP delivery technology.
December 23, 2008
Pierre Fabre Medicament and Forest Laboratories Collaborate on F2695 for Depression
Pierre Fabre Médicament and Forest Laboratories, Inc. finalized an agreement for the development and the marketing of F2695 in the United States and Canada.
December 22, 2008
Novozymes and sanofi-aventis Announce Collaborate on New Antibiotic
Novozymes signed a global licensing and collaboration agreement with Sanofi-aventis for the development and marketing of a new potential antibiotic.
December 22, 2008
Biovail Enters into Commercial Alliance with sanofi-aventis for Aplenzin
Biovail Corporation announced that a subsidiary, Biovail Laboratories International SRL (BLS), has entered into a supply agreement with sanofi aventis US for the marketing and distribution of Aplenzin (bupropion hydrobromide tablets) in the United States and Puerto Rico.
December 22, 2008
Sangamo BioSciences Provides Pfizer with Zinc Finger Nucleases for Protein Production
Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. agreed to provide Pfizer Inc. with a worldwide, non-exclusive license for the use of certain ZFP Nuclease (ZFNs) reagents to permanently eliminate the Glutamine Synthetase (GS) gene in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell lines and for the use of these ZFN-modified cells for clinical and commercial production of therapeutic proteins.
December 22, 2008
Paladin Gets Canadian Distribution Rights for Abstral and Sancuso
Paladin Labs Inc. entered into a licensing and distribution agreement under which ProStrakan Group plc has granted Paladin the exclusive Canadian rights to market and sell Abstral (sublingual fentanyl) and Sancuso (granisetron transdermal patch).
December 22, 2008
Drais Pharmaceuticals, Diatos to Develop and Commercialize DTS-108
Drais Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Diatos S.A. entered into a global agreement to develop and commercialize DTS-108 for the treatment of solid tumor cancers.
December 22, 2008
Galapagos and GlaxoSmithKline Expand Osteoarthritis Alliance
Galapagos NV expanded the osteoarthritis alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to include two additional drug targets.
December 22, 2008
Intercell Transfers Pre-clinical Group B Streptococcus (GBS) Vaccine Program to Novartis
Intercell transferred, on an exclusive basis, its pre-clinical Group B Streptococcus (GBS) vaccine program to Novartis. At the same time Intercell has kept and received co-exclusive rights for the development of therapeutic antibodies against Group B Streptococcus and has in-licensed additional rights on GBS antibodies from Novartis.
December 19, 2008
S*BIO and Tan Tock Seng Hospital to Evaluate of JAK2 Inhibitor
S*BIO Pte Ltd signed a collaboration agreement with Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) in Singapore, to evaluate the effects of its JAK2 inhibitor, SB1518, on biological samples from patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs).
December 19, 2008
Galapagos Extends Drug Discovery Collaboration with Amgen into 2010
Galapagos NV announced that its service division BioFocus DPI has extended its longstanding drug discovery collaboration with Amgen through 2009 and 2010. BioFocus DPI will continue to provide biology, computational and medicinal chemistry services and will supply small molecule compounds for use in Amgen’s discovery programs.
December 18, 2008
VistaGen and WARF Sign License for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Technology
VistaGen Therapeutics and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) have signed a license for human embryonic stem cell patents for the development and commercialization of stem cell-based research tools.
December 18, 2008
Rhein Minapharm and ProBioGen Expand Cell Line Development Agreement
Rhein Minapharm Biogenetics SAE and ProBioGen closed their third cell line development agreement, which covers the development of a second generation interferon-ß compound with high economic potential and adds to the first two collaboration contracts signed in early 2007.
December 18, 2008
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer to Develop XIAFLEX in Europe
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Pfizer, Inc. have entered into a strategic alliance for the development, commercialization, and supply of XIAFLEX (clostridial collagenase for injection), a novel, first-in-class, late-stage biologic, for the treatment of Dupuytren’s contracture and Peyronie’s disease.
December 17, 2008
Lupin, Schering-Plough Settle Litigatation for Desloratadine
Lupin Ltd. has settled all ongoing Hatch-Waxman litigation relating to Desloratadine tablets, the generic version of Schering-Plough’s Clarinex tablets. Lupin Ltd. will be licensed under the relevant Desloratadine patents, and free to commercially launch its generic Desloratadine product, on July 1, 2012, or earlier.
December 17, 2008
GlaxoSmithKline and Dynavax Announce Worldwide Strategic Alliance
GlaxoSmithKline and Dynavax Technologies Corporation announced a worldwide strategic alliance to discover, develop, and commercialize novel inhibitors of endosomal Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) for the treatment of immuno-inflammatory diseases. December 17, 2008
Hikma Pharmaceuticals to Use MonoSol Rx Thin Film Pharmaceutical Products
MonoSol Rx has entered into an agreement for thin film pharmaceutical products with Hikma Pharmaceutical PLC. Hikma has acquired an exclusive license to distribute in the Middle East three thin film pharmaceutical products based on MonoSol Rx’s proprietary PharmFilm delivery technology.
December 16, 2008
Cell Therapeutics and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals to Market Zevalin in the US
Cell Therapeutics, Inc.(CTI) closed the transaction with Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to form a 50/50 owned joint venture, RIT Oncology LLC (LLC), to commercialize and develop Zevalin ([90Y]-ibritumomab tiuxetan) in the US.
December 16, 2008
AAIPharma and CORTRIA Sign Drug Delivery Deal
AAIPharma and CORTRIA Corporation signed a deal granting CORTRIA Corporation the right to use AAIPharma’s proprietary, controlled release oral drug delivery technology known as ProCR in conjunction with CORTRIA’s TRIA-662 drug candidate.
December 15, 2008
Bristol-Myers and Exelixis Team Up On Cancer
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Exelixis, Inc. announced a global collaboration covering two novel molecules for cancer with their associated development programs: Exelixis’ XL184, a small molecule inhibitor of MET, VEGFR2, and RET, which is currently in Phase 3 development for medullary thyroid cancer; and Exelixis’ XL281, a small molecule inhibitor of RAF kinase, which is currently in Phase 1 development for the treatment of patients with advanced solid tumor malignancies.
December 12, 2008
Horizon Signs Commercial Agreement with OSI Pharmaceuticals
Horizon Discovery signed a non-exclusive commercial agreement with OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to extensively evaluate its X-MAN technology.
December 15, 2008
Synta Earns $15 Million for Achieving Elesclomol Milestones
Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. achieved operational milestones triggering $15 million in payments from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) under its collaboration agreement for the development and commercialization of elesclomol.
December 12, 2008
Helsinn Healthcare and Zealand Pharma Partner ZP1846
Helsinn Healthcare signed a partnering agreement with Zealand Pharma, for the development and worldwide commercialization of ZP1846, a GLP-2 (glucagon-like peptide-2) receptor agonist which provides a novel way to treat chemotherapy-induced diarrhea (CID).
December 12, 2008
Napo Pharmaceuticals Announced License of Crofelemer to Salix Pharmaceuticals
Napo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced a collaboration with Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the license of crofelemer.
December 10, 2008
MIP Technologies Enters into Agreement with sanofi-aventis
MIP Technologies AB entered into a collaboration with sanofi-aventis for the development of new molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) for the analysis of pharmacologically active peptides from plasma samples.
December 10, 2008
Celentyx Announces Continued Collaboration with AMRI
Celentyx Ltd announced that AMRI has signed an agreement to further utilize Celentyx’s technology to support the company’s 5-HT3 modulator program directed toward the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.
December 10, 2008
Palatin Technologies Extends Collaboration and License Agreement with AstraZeneca
Palatin Technologies, Inc. extended its exclusive research collaboration and license agreement with AstraZeneca to discover, develop, and commercialize compounds that target melanocortin receptors and the signing of a clinical trial sponsored research agreement.
December 9, 2008
Galapagos and Dart Neuroscience Sign Drug Discovery and Compound Management Agreements
Galapagos NV and Dart Neuroscience LLC announced new collaboration agreements in drug discovery and compound management.
December 9, 2008
Lentigen Corporation and PATH Partner on Vaccine for Pandemic Influenza
Lentigen Corporation and the nonprofit global health organization PATH announced a partnership to accelerate research on a pandemic influenza vaccine.
December 4, 2008
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
