Biotech company news news from FierceBiotech

Noven Pharmaceuticals is paying $125 million in cash and assuming $10 million in debt to clinch a deal to acquire New York-based JDS Pharmaceuticals. Noven, which makes drug patch products, bags two products on the market and a pipeline of experimental therapies for psychiatry and women's health. JDS's two approved drugs are Lithobid for bipolar disorder and Pexeva for depression. If all goes according to plan, Noven says the acquisition will add more than $500 million in new sales by …

Cellumen says it will use an $8.7 million injection of venture capital to begin its commercialization efforts. The company specializes in cellular systems biology for drug discovery work. Safeguard Scientifics provided $6 million of that while PA Early Stage Partners put up $2 million.

- see the release
- read the the Pittsburgh Business Journal …

Demonstrating once again the powerful pull of RNAi, Roche has agreed to pay $331 million up front--including an equity payment--and up to a billion dollars overall for the nonexclusive licensing rights to Alnylam's gene silencing technology. Roche winds up with a 5 percent stake in the company. It's a huge deal for Alnylam, which recorded about $27 million in revenue last year. Alnylam's stock soared 61.6 percent on the news. The package includes a $15 million payout to acquire Alnylam's …

More on the clotting drug race: Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer announced that their oral anti-clotting therapy--apixaban--demonstrated comparability to the current standard of care that relies on an injectable combined with a drug that includes warfarin. The experimental pill hit its endpoints in a mid-stage study for the rates of blood clots and dangerous bleeding. The researchers say that a comparable therapy would allow patients to bypass a standard approach that includes harsh side …

Woburn, MA-based BioVex--which is working to develop new therapies for cancer and infectious diseases--has raised $22 million in the first close of its fifth round. Medical Ventures led the round. New Science Ventures joined as a new investor along with existing investors such as ABN Amro (Forbion), Avalon Ventures, Credit Agricole Private Equity, GeneChem Management of Montreal, Innoven Partners and Scottish Equity Partners.

"Building on the impressive data that has recently been …

Silence Therapeutics has partnered up with AstraZeneca in the early stage identification and development of short interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules in a deal that has a potential payoff of up to $400 million. Silence gets $15 million of that up front in access and equity payments that give AstraZeneca a 2.94 percent stake in the company. In turn AstraZeneca gets a license to Silence's siRNA technology, which has become a red-hot technology approach in biotech.

"We look forward to …

Genzyme shares took a nasty hit after researchers announced that its once promising diarrhea drug tolevamer failed to prove superior to standard therapy in a late-stage trial. The drug proved well tolerated and safe, but not as effective as vancomycin. The news triggered a 5 percent decline in the company's stock price.

"These are disappointing results that alter our expectations about the potential for commercializing tolevamer in the near future," said Henri A. Termeer, chairman …

Bristol-Myers Squibb says its cancer drug ixabepilone has demonstrated activity in a Phase II trial for metastatic breast cancer among patients resistant to three types of chemotherapy. The trial involved 126 patients in a single-arm study.

"Drug resistance is a major concern in treating patients with advanced disease," said Renzo Canetta, vice president, Oncology Global Clinical Research, Bristol-Myers Squibb. "The results of this study are important as they provide valuable …

The FDA's decision to delay approving Provenge until Dendreon can provide additional efficacy data has triggered intense anger among patients desperate to get the vaccine, which is designed to allow patients to live longer with advanced prostate cancer by stimulating their immune systems. The FDA's delay was at least partly attributed to the opinions of two top oncologists who …

Florida has come up with a cache of $250 million to further prod the growth of its biotech sector, but county officials say they will have trouble coming up with the matching funds needed to get access to the money. Florida has won wide acclaim for drawing in some of the world's top research institutes, and now the Max Planck Institute and New York's Rockefeller University …