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Shire Finds Big Value in Rare Diseases, and a Strong Growth Path for its...
Arlene Weintraub On May 11, Shire (NASDAQ: SHPGY) CEO Angus Russell told a panel of journalists at the Reuters Health Summit in New York that the British drug giant is interested in pursuing gene...
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Synageva to Merge With Trimeris
Erin Kutz Lexington, MA-based Synageva BioPharma, a developer of drugs for rare diseases, announced today that it will be merging with Durham, NC-based viral disease drug developer Trimeris (NASDAQ:...
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Sanofi Names David Meeker New CEO of Genzyme, Will Report to Viehbacher
Luke Timmerman Genzyme only had one leader for more than 25 years, and it has found a new one in David Meeker, now that the company is part of Paris-based pharmaceutical giant Sanofi. Meeker will...
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Amicus Counts on “Chaperone” Tech to Enhance Rare Disease Treatments
Arlene Weintraub On Thursday, Amicus Therapeutics CEO John Crowley will join the long procession of biotech executives making presentations at one of the industry’s most important gatherings, the JP...
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Hard-Nosed Hedge Fund Chief Has Soft Spot for Rare-Disease Startup
Arlene Weintraub On March 19, Martin Shkreli posted an article on the investing blog Seeking Alpha urging readers to “short” shares of San Diego-based Cytori (NASDAQ: CYTX)—essentially telling them...
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Pfizer Takes on Genzyme With New Gaucher Drug
Arlene Weintraub Last night, just hours after New York drug giant Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) reported first-quarter profits that suffered from generic competition on its blockbuster cholesterol drug...
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Ra Pharma Pours $8.6M Into Discovery Tech and New Rare-Disease Drug
Arlene Weintraub Today Ra Pharmaceuticals CEO Doug Treco will make a presentation at a conference in Las Vegas that will cap off the Cambridge, MA-based company’s weeklong unveiling. On May 16, Ra...
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NPS Rallies as Good News Flows for Two Rare-Disease Drugs
Arlene Weintraub Shares of Bedminster, NJ-based NPS Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NPSP) jumped 14 percent to $8.21 on Friday after a panel of drug experts in Europe recommended that the regulatory agency...
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Two Years After Rising from Ashes, Aegerion Preps for Drug Debut
Arlene Weintraub When Marc Beer joined Cambridge, MA-based Aegerion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AEGR) as CEO in August 2010, the company was $4 million in debt, nearly insolvent, and “not following a...
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Sarepta Moves From Seattle to Boston for the Talent
Luke Timmerman Just when it looked like Seattle might be getting another emerging biotech company in Sarepta Therapeutics, it has picked up and moved East. Sarepta (NASDAQ: SRPT), the company formerly...
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Rare Disease Science Challenge Offers $400,000 in Cash & Services
Bruce V. Bigelow San Diego’s Assay Depot, which operates an online marketplace for the life sciences industry, and the nonprofit Rare Genomics Institute say they have joined with 19 life sciences...
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Alnylam Gets $22.5M From Genzyme for Asia Rights to Amyloidosis Drug
Luke Timmerman Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has said it is modeling itself after Genzyme, and now it has formed a new partnership with the pioneering developer of drugs for rare diseases. Cambridge,...
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East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Insider Trading, Shire, Pfizer
Catherine Arnst Alleged skullduggery by some New Jersey pharma execs, drug development pacts, and a European drug approval marked this holiday week on the East Coast. —The holiday-shortened week...
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Promedior Joins Ranks of Woman-Helmed Biotechs in Massachusetts
Catherine Arnst It seems counterintuitive, given that only a handful of life sciences companies of any size have women at the helm, but the biotech startup world is a relatively good place to be a...
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Amicus-GlaxoSmithkline Drug for Fabry Disease Fails Clinical Trial
Catherine Arnst Amicus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FOLD) waited until late afternoon on Wednesday to announce that its lead drug, a treatment for rare Fabry disease, failed to meet its end point in a...
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Synageva BioPharma Announces $80 Million Stock Offering
Catherine Arnst Synageva BioPharma (NASDAQ: GEVA) announced today that it is commencing an $80 million secondary offering, less than six months after raising $115 million in a July secondary...
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Repligen in Drug Development Licensing Deal with Pfizer
Catherine Arnst In a boost to the drug discovery side of its business, Repligen (NASDAQ: RGEN) said it has found a very big pharma partner for its spinal muscular atrophy program—New York-based...
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Nimbus Discovery, Shire to Co-Develop Oral Rare Disease Drugs
Ben Fidler Nimbus Discovery splashed onto the scene in 2011 with a big-name investor group that included Bill Gates and a plan to discover drugs with the help of computer software. On Tuesday, that...
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Profiles in Long-Termism: Sarepta Therapeutics CEO Chris Garabedian
Luke Timmerman Biotech is a long-term business, in a world that places more value on short-term thinking. Pharma companies often cut long-term R&D budgets, or do disastrous mega-mergers, mainly to...
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Amicus Shelves New-Drug Filing For Fabry Disease Drug
Ben Fidler [Updated, 1:10 ET] Investors are going to have to wait awhile before they see Amicus Therapeutics submit its Fabry Disease drug to the FDA for approval. And they immediately showed their...
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