SciClone Pharmaceuticals loses chief medical officer, director

Dr. Israel Rios quit as chief medical officer of SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Friday, and Trevor Jones quit the company’s board of directors.
Foster City-based SciClone (NASDAQ: SCLN) said Rios left his job because the company is “winding down” product development work in the United States.
Jones, who’s been on SciClone’s board of directors since March 2009, quit because he was too busy with other work to keep up with his board responsibilities. He won’t be replaced, and the company’s board will shrink to seven members as a result.

SciClone to buy back $20 million in stock

SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. will repurchase up to $20 million of its outstanding common stock over the next 24 months, the Foster City company said Tuesday.
SciClone’s stock (NASDAQ: SCLN) closed Tuesday at $3.74 per share, up nearly 7.8 percent.

ASCO showcasing Bay Area cancer therapies

The cancer drug world will focus on Chicago at this weekend’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.
As I reported in last week’s print edition, this opportunity to report data from recent studies is a make-or-break meeting for many drug developers. It’s a chance to hook up with potential clinicians, investors and partners.
Here is a quick look at what some Bay Area companies are showcasing at ASCO.

Bay Area cancer drug developers pin futures on ASCO

It is make or break time for cancer drug powerhouses and wannabes alike, and that’s not lost on companies like ACT Biotech.
Impress clinicians at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting June 3 to 7 in Chicago, and those scientists will want to be part of a company’s next trial. Wow investors and a company buys additional life for itself. Blow away Big Pharma and find a partner.
Bottom line: Be there or perhaps cease to be.
For every Genentech Inc., the South San Francisco biotech cancer drug powerhouse, that is presenting at ASCO, there is an ACT, a 3-year-old company with an experimental stomach cancer drug that it hopes to take into a Phase III trial later this year. For every Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., looking to extend its Nexavar franchise into breast cancer, there’s an Exelixis Inc., which is betting its future on the power of one drug against several cancers.
Other ASCO presenters include OxiGene Inc., SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Berkeley’s Plexxikon Inc., which has teamed with Genentech and its parent, Roche, on a potential melanoma treatment.

SciClone buys U.S.-backed Chinese drug company

SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. bought NovaMed Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Chinese specialty pharmaceutical company backed by American venture capital firm Atlas Ventures, in a cash and stock deal worth up to nearly $105 million.
SciClone (NASDAQ: SCLN), basedin Foster City, said the combined revenue of the company in 2011 would be $140 million to $145 million.
SciClone CEO Freidhelm Blobel told the San Francisco Business Times last year that his company would seek out deals in China, where it already sells its hepatitis B and hepatitis C treatment, Zadaxin.