Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Seattle Genetics, CytRx, Catalyst Pharmaceutical, Forest Labs |
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By Staff and Wire Reports |
Wednesday, 08 January 2014 15:53 |
![]() Shares of Questcor Pharmaceuticals ($QCOR) are off sharply in early trading. Predictably, market chatter suggests the move may be attributable to CDF co-payment assistance issues. Seattle Genetics ($SGEN) has further expanded its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) collaboration with AbbVie ($ABBV), which will pay $25M upfront for additional rights to use Seattle's technology to develop cancer drugs. Seattle Genetics could also receive up to $255M in potential license fees and milestone payments, as well as royalties on sales of any products. Seattle Genetics has similar agreements with other major pharma players, including Bayer and Roche's Genentech. CytRx ($CYTR) is out with more data in support of aldoxorubicin efficacy. The "additional statistical analyses" of the Phase 2b study determined the hazard ratios on the PFS endpoint: HR for investigator-read scans, 0.37; HR for central lab scans, 0.59.The company also says a Kaplan-Meier analysis "showed significant improvement in subjects treated with aldoxorubicin versus subjects treated with doxorubicin." Catalyst Pharmaceutical ($CPRX) rallies 15% after the company says a jointly funded study with BioMarin ($BMRN) to examine the cardiac safety of Firdapse hit its primary endpoint. "At and above therapeutic levels, there was no effect of Firdapse on heart rate or cardiac depolarization," CPRX says. The company hopes the results "will continue to work toward making Firdapse available to patients in the U.S." As tipped earlier, Forest Labs ($FRX) is acquiring Aptalis from TPG (which has a 91% stake) and the company's other shareholders for $2.9B in cash. FRX calls the deal "an excellent strategic and financial fit" and says it should be able to recognize "$125M in cost synergies from combining the two companies." The addition, the transaction will add some $700M to FRX's revenue and around $0.78 to FY2015 non-GAAP EPS. For more on Aptalis' financials, see here. FRX has secured a $1.9B bridge facility for the deal and says it will "consider initiating the [previously announced] accelerated share repurchase program" once the acquisition is complete. "Featured Content" profiles are meant to provide awareness of these companies to investors in the small-cap and growth equity community and should not in any way come across as a recommendation to buy, sell or hold these securities. BiomedReports is not paid or compensated by newswires to disseminate or report news and developments about publicly traded companies, but may from time to time receive compensation for advertising, data, analytics and investor relation services from various entities and firms. Full disclosures should be read in the 'About Us Section'. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |