Fledgling Cambridge, MA-based startup Surface Oncology has pulled off its first Big Pharma deal, grabbing $170 million in near-term milestones, an upfront and research support from Novartis ($NVS) as it pursues next-gen cancer immuno-therapies.

In exchange, Novartis is buying a ringside seat to Surface Oncology’s pipeline activities, taking worldwide rights to the lead program and dibs on three more cancer programs. Surface, though, isn’t just signing away rights. It’s keeping U.S. commercialization rights on at least half of the programs. And there’s more cash available in unspecified milestones in the deal.

“The total deal potential is consistent with other major IO deals in the space such as the recent Symphogen deal, among others,” says CEO Detlev Biniszkiewicz in an email response to FierceBiotech. “We will receive major clinical and commercial milestones for all four programs as well as double digit royalties. The total deal potential reflects the value of Surface’s novel portfolio of projects that target regulatory T cell and macrophage populations, inhibitory cytokines, and immunosuppressive metabolites.”

Read More

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) today detailed its strategy to build a top-performing commercial biotechnology company generating rapid, sustainable, high-margin growth. As part of this strategy, the Company outlined three- and five-year operational and financial goals, which include bringing new medicines to market, advancing several blockbuster opportunities into later-stage clinical development, and generating growing cash flows. These goals do not include the potential upside impact of any acquisitions, licensing or other corporate development transactions.

“Ironwood is one of the few companies in the biopharmaceutical industry to have successfully discovered, developed and commercialized a product that has become the branded prescription market leader in its category,” said Peter Hecht, chief executive officer of Ironwood. “Our flagship product LINZESS is well on its way to becoming our first blockbuster: in just its third year on the market, it generated approximately $450 million in 2015 U.S. net sales, annual growth of more than 50%, and is delivering rapidly expanding commercial margins. We are advancing potential blockbuster products for IBS-C/CIC, vascular/fibrotic diseases, and refractory GERD, and we believe the growing contribution from our commercial business and cash on hand are sufficient to fully fund our core business without the need to raise additional capital.”

Read More

Blueprint Medicines(NASDAQ: BPMC), a leader in discovering and developing highly selective investigational kinase medicines for patients with genomically defined diseases, today announced the appointment of Kathryn (Kate) Haviland as Chief Business Officer.  Ms. Haviland will join the executive management team and will be responsible for Blueprint Medicines’ corporate strategy, business development, corporate communications and investor relations functions.

“We are thrilled to welcome Kate to Blueprint Medicines. Kate brings an impressive breadth of experience and leadership within the biopharmaceutical industry. Her substantial background in business development, commercial and strategic planning and program management will be indispensable as we continue to explore the depth of our pipeline of highly selective investigational kinase medicines and discover additional applications for our novel target discovery engine,” said Jeff Albers, Chief Executive Officer of Blueprint Medicines. “We look forward to her contributions as a member of our executive leadership team as we seek to build Blueprint Medicines into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company capable of making a substantial difference for patients.”

Read More

Acacia Pharma Group plc (“Acacia Pharma”), the supportive care company developing products for US and international markets, announces positive results from a Phase 3 study investigating BAREMSIS^™ (amisulpride injection, formerly APD421) in combination with standard antiemetics for the prevention of post-operative nausea & vomiting (“PONV”) in high-risk patients.

Dr Julian Gilbert, Acacia Pharma’s CEO commented: “There is a compelling medical and commercial need for a safe and effective dopamine antagonist antiemetic that can be used in combination with current standard-of-care to manage PONV. The results from this study show that BAREMSIS could be used in the prevention of PONV in high-risk patients. Very pleasingly, the magnitude of BAREMSIS’ effect, a relative risk reduction of 22%, was consistent with the results seen in our monotherapy prophylaxis trials and, most importantly, with that routinely seen with the current standard-of-care drugs such as ondansetron.”

Read More