AngioSoma (OTCQB:SOAN) said today that it named Ken Stephenson to the Montgomery, Texas-based company’s corner office. Alexanderia Blankenship will now serve as chief operating officer and executive VP. Stephenson has worked with hospitals, health insurance organizations and physician’s offices throughout Texas, according to the company. He previously helped set up practices for interventional radiologists and […]
Wall Street Beat
CMS pinpoints cost-driving drugs in newly released data
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released 5 years of pricing data for a list of more than 5,000 drugs this week. The data illustrate that a handful of cost-driving drugs experienced price hikes in 2015, which cost taxpayers millions in added Medicare spending. The price of some drugs went up almost 500%, with name-brand […]
Clearside Biomedical prices $36m IPO
Clearside Biomedical (NSDQ:CLSD) today priced its $36 million initial public offering, floating 4 million shares at $9 apiece and including a 30-day underwriters option for 600,000 more shares. Alpharetta, Ga.-based Clearside said it plans to use theIPO proceeds to fund a pivotal Phase III trial of its suspension formulation of corticosteroid triamcinolone acetonide, Zuprata, for […]
BioDelivery reacquires license to buprenorphine film
BioDelivery Sciences International (NSDQ:BDSI) said today that it reacquired the license to the Belbuca (buprenorphine) buccal film from Endo Pharmaceuticals. Malvern, Penn-based Endo Pharmaceuticals licensed the worldwide manufacturing and marketing rights to the opioid patch from BioDelivery in 2012. Belbuca, a once-daily opioid, is indicated for the management of severe pain. The small, peppermint-flavored film works by […]
Trump comments send pharma, biotech shares down
(Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday took aim at drugmakers, promising in a magazine interview that “I’m going to bring down drug prices,” and shares of U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies fell. In a cover story for Time magazine, which named him its Person of the Year, Trump said that “I don’t like what […]
Aerie completes enrollment of phase III trial for intraocular pressure eye drops
Aerie Pharmaceuticals (NSDQ:AERI) said today that it completed enrollment for its 2nd phase III registration trial, Mercury 2, evaluating its Roclatan once-daily eye drops for intraocular pressure resulting from glaucoma or ocular hypertension. The company’s Roclatan solution is a fixed dose combination of its drug Rhopressa (netarsudil ophthalmic solution) and latanoprost, a widely prescribed prostaglandin […]
Mylan to cut 10% of workforce in restructuring efforts
Mylan (NSDQ:MYL) shares dropped 5% this morning after it said in regulatory filing that it expects to cut less than 10% of its global workforce as a result of its restructuring efforts. The Canonsburg, Penn.-based company has about 35,000 employees, according to Reuters, and wrote in the SEC filing that it will implement restructuring programs in specific […]
UK slaps Pfizer with record $107m fine over price hikes
The U.K.’s Competition & Markets Authority reportedly fined Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Flynn Pharma a record amount for the companies’ massive price hikes to their unbranded versions of anti-epilepsy drug Epanutin. The British anti-trust watchdog fined Pfizer and Flynn Pharma $107 million (£84.2 million) and $6.5 million (£5.2 million), respectively. New York City-based Pfizer used to market the phenytoin sodium anti-epilepsy […]
Tax holiday could ignite more pharma M&A
(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to incentivize U.S. companies to repatriate their swelling overseas cash piles could spur a new wave of dealmaking in a pharmaceutical industry seeking to buy its way into growth. For years, big U.S. drugmakers have turned to acquisitions of foreign companies to put their overseas cash to work, […]
Novo Nordisk joins Allergan in pledge to limit price hikes
Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) president Jakob Riis said this week that the company will limit annual price hikes of its products’ list prices to single-digit percentages, joining Allergan (NYSE:AGN) CEO Brent Saunders who released a “social contract” 3 months ago with the same goal. “We hear from more and more people living with diabetes about the challenges […]