Maryland Technology News

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has awarded the 2009 AM Turing Award to Charles P. Thacker, for his work in pioneering the networked personal computer.

Should a state spend $1.15 million on a Web-based portal designed to connect students, support college and career transitions?

Shares of U.K.'s Neuropharm shot up 33 percent this morning when the developer announced that its board will explore the possibility of a return of cash to shareholders. The company is still hoping to pull off a deal for its lead autism candidate NPL-2008, which it put up for sale in November of last year. "The company is continuing talks with a potentially interested party, which is in the advanced stages of due diligence, but no indicative offer has yet been received from that party," Neuropharm says in a statement.

Neuropharm's shares took a beating early last year after the biotech reported that its late-stage trial for an experimental autism therapy flunked its primary endpoint. But its stock was revived upon rumors that it was getting close to a deal for NPL-2008. In its release, the company notes it has significantly reduced its cash burn and had £6.18 million ($9.2 million) on hand as of Dec. 31, 2009. 

- here's Neuropharm's release
- read this Reuters report for more

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> EKR Therapeutics has announced that its executive chairman John Bailye has been appointed interim president and CEO replacing Howard Weisman, who is no longer with the company. Weisman will also no longer serve on EKR's board of directors. Release

> Human Genome Sciences has named David Southwell as CFO and EVP. Release

> Robert Shepard has been appointed CMO of Cornerstone Pharmaceuticals. Release

> Shengtai Pharmaceutical has appointed Hu Ye as its new CFO. Release

> Talaris Advisors has named Derek Lee as CFO and corporate development officer. Release

> Sandoz announced the appointment of Don DeGolyer as president of the company's U.S. operations and head of commercial operations for North America.

> Phillip Frost will serve as the new chairman of the board of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries after Eli Hurvitz indicated he wishes to be released from his duties. Moshe Many has stepped down from his role as interim chairman and has been appointed vice chairman. Release

> Protalix BioTherapeutics has reported that Eli Hurvitz is relinquishing his position as chairman and member of the board of directors.  The board has unanimously appointed longstanding member Zeev Bronfeld to serve as interim chairman. Release

> Charles Lannon has been named vice-chairman of the board at Kinex Pharmaceuticals. Release

> China Yongxin Pharmaceutical has announced that Hal Lieberman, Laura Philips, Bing Li and Jingang Wang were appointed to its board of directors as independent directors. Release

> 3SBio has announced changes to its board of directors. Liping Xu, company founder, executive director and VP, will retire from the board and her position as a company officer. Peiguo Cong will join the board and serve as an independent, non-executive director.

Novartis has put up $10 million and promised up to €700 million more in milestones in exchange for an option on Transgene's promising, late-stage cancer immunotherapy.

France's Transgene will hold on to control of the upcoming Phase IIb/III pivotal trial of TG4010 that is slated to get under way by the end of this year after enrolling about a thousand patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Once Novartis gets its hands on the IIb portion of the data, the pharma giant will have 90 days to decide whether it will exercise its option on the program. The data is scheduled to arrive in early 2012.

If Novartis decides to pull the trigger on the option--a deal structure that is growing increasingly common in drug development--Transgene will get a fee plus milestones along with co-promotion rights in a list of countries that includes France and China. Novartis will gain control of the program and take responsibility for further costs.

"We believe this agreement represents the best way to accelerate development and create long term value for our shareholders," says Transgene CEO Philippe Archinard. "It is also consistent with the company's goal of becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company as under this agreement Transgene will maintain certain commercialization and manufacturing rights."

However, not everyone was impressed with the optional, uncertain terms of the agreement, andshares in the French biotechnology company went down 12 percent. "We view today's option announcement as slightly underwhelming, given that the ongoing burden of funding remains with Transgene for another two years," says Nomura Code analyst Gary Waanders.

Because Novartis wants to see the outcome of a mid-stage Phase IIb clinical trial before exercising its option, Waanders said he was reviewing his "neutral" rating and fair value estimate of 21.80 euros a share.

- check out the Transgene press release
- here's the Reuters story

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BARCELONA - On Monday evening I moderated a panel on corporate venture financing at BIO-Europe Spring, joined by Roel Bulthuis, the head of Merck Serono Ventures, Anja (it's pronounced Anya) König, managing director of Novartis Venture Fund, Patrick Krol, a partner with Aescap and Malcolm Weir, the CEO at Heptares. I'd spoken with Weir before about his U.K. biotech company and knew that he and König went back. Novartis is an investor in Heptares, which we featured last year as a Fierce 15 company.

König's fund has a history of getting in early at a developer. And as she emphatically hammered home during the rather informal hour-long exchange about corporate VC goals and objectives, Novartis' venture arm is on the lookout for game-changing technologies. An incremental, short-yardage health gain isn't the objective.

Over the last year, König's longstanding interest in the cutting-edge has become an increasingly common feature in the drug development scene. As Big Pharma companies apply shock therapy to their R&D empires, it's clear that the top CEOs are focused on getting their organizations to think more like biotech organizations. If they can't become more efficient at development and shed some of the bureaucracy that has grown around their empires even as they grow bolder in their scientific objectives, then they won't be nimble enough to get out from under the avalanche of patent expirations that is tumbling their way. That process won't ever be pretty, but it is understandable.

That's a lesson, though, that more biotech execs need to take to heart as well. Safety is great. Low risk is great--if you can find it, and I'm not sure you can. But if you aren't trying to change the game of health, it's going to be very difficult to find a licensing partner when you need one. Getting backing from a venture group that thinks that way is the best kind of validation you can hope for as you're going into the clinic.

Thanks to everyone on the panel for a lively discussion. And we appreciated a big, receptive audience. Moving from the world of virtual, online news production to the world of face-to-face communication helps make simple truths come alive. - John Carroll twitter | email

More from BIO-Europe:
'Externalization' takes center stage at Bio-Europe Spring
The biotech spring arrives in Barcelona

Abbott has succeeded where Biogen Idec once failed. The company announced late Tuesday that it's purchasing Facet Biotech for $450 million, or $27 a share. That's 67 percent premium over the biotech's closing price of $16.21 earlier today.

Abbott says the acquisition will boost its early- and mid-stage pharmaceutical pipeline. The developer has its eyes on two primary therapeutic areas--immunology and oncology. The highest-priority program is daclizumab, a Phase II biologic for multiple sclerosis that will move into Phase III trials in Q2 of 2010. Facet is already partnered with Biogen Idec on the compound. The biotech also has oncology compounds for multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia in early to mid-stage trials.

Last year Biogen attempted to purchase Facet, eventually making a "best and final offer" of $430 million after its initial $356 million bid was deemed hopelessly unrealistic based on the developer's cash position and pipeline. But with the support of two major investors, Facet was able to fend Biogen off, while at the same time noting that it would be open to more substantial bids from other companies. Biogen will owe Facet a big milestone on the launch of a late-stage study for daclizumab.

"This acquisition will further strengthen Abbott's biologics capabilities and pharmaceutical pipeline," says John Leonard, M.D., senior vice president, global pharmaceutical research and development, Abbott. "Daclizumab is a promising treatment for multiple sclerosis, a disease that has a significant unmet medical need, and has the potential to become an important treatment option for patients. We continue to explore multiple mechanisms to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer with both biologic and small molecule approaches."

Abbott has been on a buying spree as of late. It spent $10 billion on new acquisitions last year, paying $3 billion for Advanced Medical Optics and $6.6 billion for the prescription drug business of Solvay.

- here's Abbott's release
- read the BusinessWeek article for more

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Facet seeks new bids after Biogen offer flops
Biogen ups the ante for Facet
Biogen turns hostile in $356M bid to acquire Facet
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After considering all of its options, Pasadena, CA-based AutoImmune has decided to liquidate its assets and to dissolve the company. The developer had been working on products to treat autoimmune and other cell-mediated inflammatory conditions. The company ran into trouble after the Phase III failure of multiple sclerosis drug dirucotide, a treatment it had been developing with BioMS. In October, AutoImmune retained Junewicz & Co. to explore its strategic options. Shuttering its operations proved to be the best course, and the company plans to distribute all available cash to stockholders.

"After evaluating the Company's strategic options, the Board of Directors reached the conclusion that it is in the best interest of stockholders to liquidate and dissolve the Company," says CEO Robert Bishop in a statement. "In connection with the Company's plans to liquidate, we have begun the orderly wind down of the Company's operations, including seeking purchasers for the Company's intellectual property and other tangible and intangible assets and providing for the Company's outstanding and potential liabilities."

- here's AutoImmune's release

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The 2009 Biotech Graveyard
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ABBOTT PARK, Ill. and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Abbott (NYSE:ABT - News) and Facet Biotech Corporation (Nasdaq:FACT - News) announced today a definitive agreement for Abbott to acquire Facet, enhancing Abbott's early- and mid...

Neuropharm has been in discussions with a number of parties since it entered an offer period on 3 November 2009 and announced that it was pursuing a proposed sale or...

Jean-Franois Boussard, 58, joins Biocitech after a long and successful biotechnology career in both...