Xoma files $100 million mixed shelf offering

Xoma Corp. filed a shelf offering Wednesday that would let it sell $100 million worth of common stock, preferred stock, debt securities and warrants. Xoma plans to use the money for working capital and general corporate purposes, including research and development expenses and capital expenditures, it said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Xoma lands orphan drug status for eye disease treatment

Xoma Corp. lead drug, gevokizumab, was granted orphan drug status for an inflammatory eye disease, the company said Wednesday. Orphan drug designation, awarded by the Food and Drug Administration for experimental treatments for diseases with fewer than 200,000 patients, allows Berkeley-based Xoma (NASDAQ: XOMA) to receive tax breaks for 50 percent of the cost of its clinical trials in non-infectious uveitis and pan-uveitis and FDA fee waiver. It also would receive seven years of U.S. market exclusivity if a drug is approved.

CMC Biologics to buy Xoma's former manufacturing facility

Xoma Corp.'s Berkeley manufacturing facility is getting a new operator. CMC Biologics, a Copenhagen-based contract manufacturing company, said Tuesday that it will buy the 31,000-square-foot, large-scale manufacturing operations formerly used by Berkeley-based Xoma (NASDAQ: XOMA) as well as other assets. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. CMC also did not say how many people who worked at the facility under Xoma would be employed by the new owner.

Xoma enrolling 2 trials, in eye disease and osteoarthritis

Xoma Corp. started enrolling patients for two drug trials -- a Phase III study in the eye disease non-infectious uveitis and a mid-stage trial in erosive osteoarthritis in the hand -- the company said Wednesday.

Both trials center on the Berkeley-based biotech company's (NASDAQ: XOMA) experimental monoclonal antibody treatment, called gevokizumab.

"Today represents an historic milestone for Xoma, as we launch the first global Phase III program for a Xoma-created product to which we retain U.S. commercial rights," CEO John Varian said in a press release.

Xoma zeroes in on diabetes - and a partnership? - again

Research was on the chopping block as Xoma Corp. looked to cut costs over the past year. But now, even as takeover talk touches the Berkeley antibody drug developer, Xoma may be showing it was wise to cut elsewhere. In a paper published in the May issue of the journal Diabetes, Xoma unveiled a preclinical antibody drug, called XMetA, that targets diabetes. Initial reaction: Diabetes? Really?

Buoyed by partner, Xoma now at center of takeover talk

(San Francisco Business Times subscription required.) Xoma Corp.’s latest promise may be its last. The Berkeley biotech drug developer — long on expectations, but short on delivering its own drugs to market — over the past eight months has brought on new leadership and cut costs. What’s more, a year-old partnership is helping to turn a once-failed drug toward a wide array of other uses. But where that partner, Les Laboratoires Servier, has given Xoma a measure of stability since a high-profile diabetes drug failure last year, the collaboration also has fueled speculation that the French drug maker ultimately will buy Xoma. Those rumors have sent Xoma’s stock price soaring more than 170 percent from a 52-week low to about $2.85 per share. Excuse Xoma shareholders, however, if they get a queasy been-there/done-that vibe when it comes to Xoma’s plans.

Xoma seeks $39.2M from sale of stock, warrants

Antibody drug developer Xoma Corp. would raise $39.2 million by selling nearly 29.7 million shares plus warrants.
Berkeley-based Xoma (NASDAQ: XOMA) on Tuesday priced the common stock and warrants to buy one-half of a share of common stock for each share purchased at $1.32.

Xoma to sell stock to pay for clinical trials, layoff costs

Xoma Corp. will sell an undisclosed amount of its common stock and warrants, the Berkeley antibody drug developer said Monday.
Xoma (NASDAQ: XOMA) will use money from the sale to fund a shotgun full of clinical trials -- not including a late-stage trial tied to a drug it bought in January -- as well as to cover costs related to recent layoffs and to continue its preclinical programs.

Xoma cuts deal for hypertension drug, potential combo products

Xoma Corp. bought the U.S. rights to the hypertension drug Aceon — sold as a low-cost generic since 2009 — and up to three late-stage drug candidates that combine Aceon with other active ingredients, the Berkeley company said Tuesday.
Xoma (NASDAQ: XOMA) paid $1.5 million upfront in third-quarter 2010 to acquire the license from French drug maker Les Laboratoires Servier, it said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday.

Xoma shifts manufacturing to contractor, cuts 84 jobs

Xoma Corp. will cut 84 jobs — about one-third of its workforce — as the Berkeley-based drug developer shifts much of its manufacturing to a contractor.
Xoma (NASDAQ: XOMA), which officially took “interim” off CEO John Varian’s title, said Thursday that it will eliminate 50 jobs immediately and cut the other 34 jobs by the end of the first quarter.

Xoma lands $10M loan, moves legal HQ from Bermuda

Xoma Corp., which at the close of 2011 switched its corporate home from Bermuda to Delaware and changed its name from Xoma Ltd., lined up a $10 million loan deal with GE Capital’s healthcare financial services unit.
GE Capital also received warrants to buy 263,158 shares of common stock, exercisable at $1.14 per share.

Xoma, partner Servier to expand eye disease trial

Xoma Ltd. and French drug partner Les Laboratoires Servier will broaden their late-stage clinical program to include patients diagnosed with a group of non-infectious eye maladies.
The Phase III trial of XOMA-052, also known as gevokizumab, had focused on Behcet’s uveitis, an eye disease that affects about 7,500 patients in the United States. By including several eye diseases categorized as non-infectious uveitis, including Behcet’s, the potential number of patients is increased to more than 150,000, the Berkeley-based company (NASDAQ: XOMA) said.

Xoma returning from the Bermuda Triangle

Xoma Ltd. is coming home, sort of.
The Berkeley-based biotech company (NASDAQ: XOMA) said Tuesday that it plans to change the jurisdiction of its incorporation from Bermuda to Delaware for greater legal, administration and other efficiencies. The move also will reduce Xoma’s exposure to potentially adverse tax legislation, the company said, and avoid potential blacklisting of its common shares by some pension funds or legislation that restrict their dealings with non-U.S. companies.

Xoma scores botulism grant valued at $28M over five years

Xoma Ltd. will develop a treatment for human botulism poisoning under a federal contract that could pay out $28 million over five years.

Xoma's Steven Engle quits as chairman, president, CEO

Xoma Ltd. Chairman, President and CEO Steven Engle stepped down Wednesday from all of the positions as the company struggles to move past disappointing results from a diabetes trial earlier this year.
The Berkeley company (NASDAQ: XOMA) said current board member John Varian will become interim CEO and W. Denman Van Ness, Xoma’s lead independent director, will become chairman. Xoma will start looking for a permanent CEO.

Away from BIO's glare, Xoma, Tethys tackle diabetes

It ain’t BIO, but the American Diabetes Association’s big scientific meeting in San Diego may be just as important to a couple of East Bay life sciences companies.
Some 2,700 miles away from this week's Biotechnology Industry Organization’s shindig in Washington, D.C., the ADA meeting has given Berkeley’s Xoma Ltd. and Emeryville-based Tethys Bioscience Inc . a platform for news.

Xoma hires Paul Rubin as CMO, shifts founder Patrick Scannon to CSO

Xoma Ltd. hired a new chief medical officer and said founder Dr. Patrick Scannon, who worked two years as chief medical officer, shifted to the job of chief scientific officer.
Dr. Paul Rubin, the new chief medical officer of Berkeley-based Xoma (NASDAQ: XOMA), had been in the same job at Funxional Therapeutics Ltd. He was senior vice president of development and later executive vice president of research and development at Sepracor, where he was responsible for development of all internally developed products, such as the sleep drug Lunesta.

Xoma botulism treatment starts early-stage government trial

A Xoma Ltd. antibody treatment aimed at preventing and treating botulism poisoning — particularly that caused by a biological weapon — is the focus of an early-stage trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The 24-patient Phase I trial at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore will test the safety of XOMA 3AB, the Berkeley-based company’s (NASDAQ: XOMA) most advanced R&D program. It uses three antibodies that when combined neutralize the botulism neurotoxin at very low doses.

Questions remain for Xoma after diabetes drug trial failure

If it was make-or-break time for Xoma Ltd. a couple months ago, it may be break time now.
Back in January, after the Berkeley company signed a deal with French drug maker Servier around its experimental anti-inflammatory treatment for diabetes, I said it was time for Xoma to put up or shut up. XOMA-052 has been ballyhooed as a potential once-a-month diabetes treatment, but its future now is in doubt as the drug failed an important Phase II trial, the company said Tuesday.
Xoma (NASDAQ: XOMA) will continue to analyze data from this mid-stage study and another ongoing Phase II, but in perhaps the understatement of Tuesday's conference call with analysts, Xoma Chairman and CEO Steven Engle said, "We have learned a lot."

Xoma diabetes drug fails Phase II trial

Xoma Ltd.’s much-watched experimental diabetes drug failed a key Phase II study, the company said.
XOMA-052 did not hit its primary goal of reducing glycosylated hemoglobin, or HbA1c, compared to a placebo, after six monthly treatments in the Phase IIb trial.
The drug has been discussed as a potential once-a-month treatment for type 2 diabetes that targets inflammation by inhibiting the protein interleukin-1, or IL-1.