Small pain drug player gets snapped up in $604M buyout — and the axe will soon fall – Endpoints News

The small pain therapy player BioDelivery Sciences is getting scooped up in a $604 million buyout.
Collegium Pharmaceutical, a somewhat larger player in the pain arena that started the day with a market cap right at the buyout size, is doing the acquiring here for $5.60 per share, good for a 50% spike in the stock price ahead of the bell Monday.
In exchange for the money, Collegium is getting a schedule 3 opioid called Belbuca and an oral migraine therapy called Elyxyb, which BioDelivery acquired from Dr. Reddy’s and ushered into the US market as a premier oral treatment at a time when a raft of new migraine drugs have been jumping into the market.
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Martin Meeson’s first task as incoming CEO at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies was to send everyone home, and it’s been a sprint ever since.
That was nearly two years ago as the pandemic hit. Overnight, the CDMO leader had to invent new ways of orchestrating their essential formulation and manufacturing supply chains. Facing a surge of demand from biotechs entering the clinic, the company also invested big in new facilities and technologies.
GlaxoSmithKline recently became the 14th biopharma company to switch up its approach to distributing drugs purchased via the federal 340B program for low-income individuals.
Effective April 1, GSK said it will ship products purchased at the lower, 340B prices exclusively to locations registered as a 340B covered entity or affiliate with that covered entity. This contract pharmacy policy, which will limit the number of entities that receive these reduced prices, will apply to 9 of GSK’s asthma and COPD drugs, including Advair, Ventolin, Breo, Trelegy, Anoro, Incruse, Flovent, Arnuity and Serevent.
New York’s Fashion Week is getting blue again this week with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen. The Blue Jacket Fashion Show sponsored by Janssen Oncology is now in its sixth year with a goal to drive prostate cancer awareness with a catwalk of male celebrities and athletes donning blue-hued outfits.
This year the message is even more important after drops in prostate cancer health checks. Screenings for prostate cancer declined by 29% and diagnoses dropped by 23% compared to rates before the pandemic, said Rodney Gillespie, VP of oncology sales and marketing at Janssen.
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The federal government has only sent four shipments of Merck’s Covid-19 antiviral molnupiravir (about 400,000 courses in each shipment) nationwide, and already HHS is reporting that some pharmacies are running out of space for the pill because so few people are using it.
Once considered a centerpiece of the US Covid-19 armamentarium, the Merck pill is now piling up on pharmacy shelves as both Pfizer’s pill Paxlovid and GSK/Vir’s monoclonal antibody sotrovimab are recommended for use ahead of molnupiravir.
Roivant Sciences welcomed the newest addition to its family of “vants” on Monday during its fourth quarter and full-year 2021 update.
The biopharma unveiled Hemavant as its latest subsidiary, packaging the company launch with a compound in-licensed from Eisai last month. Hemavant will aim to repurpose the molecule, formerly H3B-8800 and rebranded as RVT-2001, to treat transfusion-dependent anemia in certain patients with low-risk myelodysplastic syndromes.
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More than six months after Tony Kingsley made an abrupt departure from the helm at Scholar Rock — and just a little more than a year after his arrival — we found out today what his next gig will be.
Kingsley is taking charge at Stablix, a biotech startup out of Versant that announced a $63 million launch raise just a couple of months before the biotech exec found the exit at Scholar Rock.
Stablix’s big idea revolves around stabilizing proteins where a short supply triggers disease by throwing a monkey wrench in the ubiquitination disposal system to retain functional, though imperfect, proteins. While Kingsley noted cystic fibrosis and some cancers as good examples of where the technology could be applied, he declined to comment on exactly which indications the roughly 20-person team will pursue first.
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In the realm of drug R&D, the dramatic collapse of the antibiotics space — especially in light of the steady growth of antibiotic resistance — has been obvious for years now. And according to analysts at industry group BIO, it’s not been an issue with the drug-to-FDA success rate, where developers in the field have seen a relatively high rate of success.
The industry group released its official report on antibiotics this morning, noting new trends about the pipeline for antibiotics and the continuing exodus of biopharma and investors, all pointing to market issues at play. And the analysts have a few urgent suggestions on how to cure the field of what ails it.
With CMS closing its public comment period for its draft decision to limit coverage of Biogen’s Aduhelm last week, two Big Pharma companies developing similar Alzheimer’s drugs got in their comments just before Thursday’s deadline.
Eli Lilly and Roche both posted lengthy letters to the CMS site aiming to convince CMS to reverse its ruling restricting Aduhelm coverage to patients in clinical studies. The pair has a lot on the line as their own anti-amyloid antibodies make their way through the FDA review period.
The FDA has authorized a new Covid-19 antibody from Eli Lilly and AbCellera, adding a much-needed weapon to the arsenal fighting against Omicron.
Just days ago, the two companies unveiled a $720 million deal to supply 600,000 doses of the drug, bebtelovimab, to the US government. It may now be prescribed, under emergency use authorization, to adults and teenagers 12 or older with positive SARS-CoV-2 tests who are either at high risk for progression to severe disease or unable/ineligible for alternative treatment options.
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