Biotech Day: Thursday morning's national biotech news

From the 40 business journals of American City Business Journals …

Genzyme ordered to pay $50M to settle patent dispute (Boston Business Journal)

Cambridge, Mass.-based Genzyme Corp., a subsidiary of French drug maker Sanofi (NYSE: SNY), has been ordered to pay $50 million to privately-held New Jersey-based biotechnology company Shelbyzyme LLC. The payment is to settle allegations that Genzyme infringed one of Shelbyzyme’s patents in selling the Fabry disease drug, Fabrazyme.

The path Anido will take as NuPathe CEO (Philadelphia Business Journal)
Armando Anido said his first order of business as the new CEO of NuPathe Inc.will be to go out and raise money for the Conshohocken, Pa., biopharmaceutical company.

Related story: Area drug firm's founder/CEO resigns (Philadelphia Business Journal)

NuPathe Inc. said Wednesday the company’s co-founder and CEO Jane Hollingsworth has resigned. It has appointed the former CEO of another Philadelphia-area drug company — Armando Anido, who had led Auxilium — to replace her.

Chimerix strikes drug licensing deal with Merck (Triangle Business Journal)

Research Triangle Park-based Chimerix Inc. has entered into a license agreement that grants Merck & Co. Inc. exclusive worldwide rights to its new HIV drug. Merck (NYSE: MRK) will be responsible for both development and commercialization of the drug. In return, Chimerix will receive a $17.5 million payment and will be eligible to receive up to $151 million in milestones, as well as royalties on future sales.

NantPharma gets $125M investment from Blackstone (Los Angeles Business)

NantPharma, owned by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks LLC, has received a $125 million investment from private equity firm Blackstone. NantPharma makes biologically derived pharmaceuticals and operates a number of drug manufacturing and research facilities around the country.

QR Pharma begins human testing of Alzheimer's treatment (Philadelphia Business Journal)

QR Pharma initiated the first human clinical trial of the company’s compound bisnorcymserine, a potential treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The phase-I study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of the new drug candidate in a small group of older healthy adults.

State awards U of M Medical Devices Center $1 million (Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal)
The University of Minnesota Medical Devices Center will build a new facility on the school's West Bank campus, thanks to a $1.08 million grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment of Economic Development (DEED).

Corindus wins FDA nod for robotic heart procedure (Boston Business Journal)

Corindus Vascular Robotics has won clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its robotic-assisted percutaneous coronary intervention system. The Natick, Mass.-based, privately held medical device company developed the CorPath system to allow doctors to perform the heart procedures, designed to reopen blocked arteries, from a remote cockpit location.

Greatbatch Q2 net income takes fall as sales climb (Buffalo Business First)
Greatbatch Inc. reported second-quarter profit dropped to $3.85 million from $8.55 million a year ago at despite record sales. The implantable medical device manufacturer (NYSE: GB) said sales increased 14 percent to $166.5 million, from $146.5 million in the 2010 second quarter.

Biotech Day: Tuesday's national biotech news

From the 40 business journals of American City Business Journals …

Biogen to fund mapping of ALS genome (Boston Business Journal)
Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) has entered into a research collaboration with Duke University and the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology designed to sequence the genomes of up to 1,000 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The goal is to gain a better understanding of the genetic causes of ALS, in order to come up with better potential treatments.

Navigenics' Vance Vanier.

Life Technologies buys DNA test developer Navigenics (San Francisco Business Times)

Life Technologies Corp. bought genetic-information company Navigenics Inc., the company said Monday, giving the testing equipment giant an inroad to process lab tests for doctors. Carlsbad-based Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE) did not disclose the value of the deal, but it said it is its "first step" toward building out its molecular diagnostics business through internal development, partnerships and select acquisitions. Foster City-based Navigenics, run by San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40 award winner Vance Vanier, develops DNA tests that tell doctors if patients have genetic markers for certain diseases. It is one of a handful of companies that have taken advantage of faster, more accurate systems, like those offered by Life Technologies, to tap into consumers' interest in predicting and preventing diseases.


NuPathe resubmits migraine patch to FDA (Philadelphia Business Journal)

NuPathe is ready to take another shot at getting its migraine patch Zelrix approved. The company (NASDAQ:PATH) said it has resubmitted the treatment to the Food and Drug Administration. Last year the FDA raised chemistry, manufacturing and safety questions about the product.

Johnson & Johnson firm seeking new use for Simponi (Philadelphia Business Journal)
Janssen Biotech and Janssen Biologics are requesting Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency approval to make their Simponi drug a treatment for "adult patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis who have had an inadequate response to conventional therapy."



A watershed moment in the fight against HIV (Boston Business Journal)

I caught my breath as I opened an email from the FDA Monday. The agency had for the first time approved a drug to prevent the spread of HIV, made by California biotech Gilead Sciences Inc (Nasdaq: GILD). This day is a day that has been the dream of patients, family members, activists, and medical providers throughout my entire adult life.

Related story: FDA approves Gilead's Truvada as first pill for HIV prevention (San Francisco Business Times)

Human Genome Sciences CEO Tom Watkins

Unknown future for Human Genome Sciences, execs after GlaxoSmithKline buyout (Washington Business Journal)

British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK) is snapping up Rockville-based Human Genome Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: HGSI) for $3.6 billion, raising a host of questions over the local biotech’s future along the Interstate 270 corridor. It’s yet unclear how Glaxo plans to reshape its longtime partner, whether it will keep management in place or clean house — as in other recent big pharma acquisitions — and whether it will maintain Human Genome Sciences’ Maryland facilities.

MedImmune will open new center, shift 40 jobs to Hayward (San Francisco Business Times)

The South Bay's loss of MedImmune will be the East Bay's gain. The vaccine and infectious diseases drug developer said it plans to open a new translational sciences area for applied immunology and microbiology in Hayward as it closes facilities in Mountain View and Santa Clara.

Related story: MedImmune closures in Mountain View, Santa Clara will ax hundreds of jobs (San Francisco Business Times)

Moody's downgrades Thermo Fisher on Lamba acquisition (Boston Business Journal)

Moody’s Investors Service announced it would downgrade $6.6 billion of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s (NYSE: TMO) debt, just hours after the life sciences tools company said it would acquire California diagnostics firm One Lambda for $925 million in cash. Moody’s lowered the credit rating for Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Fisher one notch to Baa1 from A3. The outlook is stable, Moody’s said.

Med-tech devices may get barcodes (Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal)

How do you place a unique identifying number on a medical device? That’s a question many med-tech companies will be considering in the coming years, thanks to proposed guidelines issued last week by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA wants medical-device companies to use barcodes or other techniques to label each of their products. The program’s goal is to make it easier for the agency to determine whether particular devices are malfunctioning or otherwise harming patients. The FDA estimates the effort will cost the medical-device industry about $68.4 million a year.

Repros Therapeutics files protocol for mid-stage study of drug on clinical hold (Houston Business Journal)

Repros Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: RPRX) said Monday it plans to submit to the Food and Drug Administratio  protocol for a phase 2 study of Proellex. Proellex is an oral drug intended to treat endometriosis and uterine fibroids. The FDA said it would change the drug’s full clinical hold to a partial clinical hold once the phase 2 protocol is approved.