Prohost Letter #416 Part 1 The Year In Review - 2017 Unheard of Programs - AN AWESOME YEAR for the biotech sector regarding its accomplishments. Many of the accomplished programs were unheard of regarding the degree of their positive impact on medical practice. Unfortunately, many of these accomplishments, which included the making of new discoveries, the creation of novel advanced technologies and the design of …

Progenics Pharmaceuticals (PGNX) has good news today. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review the firm’s New Drug Application (NDA) for its product Azedra® for recurrent and/or unresectable pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma — rare neuroendocrine tumors. The FDA has also granted Progenics’ request for Priority Review and has set an action date of April 30, 2018, under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA). The NDA is supported by data from a pivotal phase …

The FDA Grants Fast Track Status to DelMar Pharmaceuticals’ Product VAL-083 Dec.26, 2017 – DelMar Pharmaceuticals (DMPI) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for the company’s lead product candidate, VAL-083, in recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM). This Fast Track status applies to two ongoing clinical trials sponsored by DelMar Pharmaceuticals to evaluate VAL-083 as a potential treatment for rGBM.  These trials include: …

Two months ahead of the PDUFA date scheduled for February 28, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Aerie Pharmaceuticals’ (AERI) ophthalmic solution) 0.02% Rhopressa® (netarsudil for the lowering of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in open-angle glaucoma. Vicente Anido, Jr., Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Aerie said that the firm will hire a sales force of 100 sales representatives early in the first quarter of …

Based on statistically significant results from the randomized phase 2 CABOSUN trial in patients with previously untreated renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Exelixis’ (EXEL)drug Cabometyx® (cabozantinib) for the expanded indication of patients with RCC. The results demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) versus sunitinib, a current standard of care. Today’s label expansion follows the initial FDA approval …

After years of spending efforts in creating and developing its pipeline products, Portola (PTLA) has just been granted a U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of its Prior Approval Supplement (PAS) for the anticoagulant product Bevyxxa® (betrixaban). The product is approved ahead of its scheduled January 30th action date, which enables the release and distribution of its product inventory. Bevyxxa® is a factor Xa inhibitor approved on June 23, 2017 as a single-drug regimen for …

UCART19 UCART19 is one of the Cellectis’ (CLLS) lead allogeneic anti-CD19 CAR T-cell products. The word allogeneic is important as it makes the difference between Cellectis’ CAR T products and the two approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR T) products and some of the investigational CAR T immuno-oncology products. Except for Cellectis’ and a few other  biotechs including  Celyad’s (CYAD)  products all other CAR T treatments are non-allogeneic (autologous) treatments. Being allogeneic, Cellectis’ products …

Juno Therapeutics (JUNO) is one of the casualties that occurred during the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. The stock experienced undeserved selloff except for the fact that it had a deserved rally that we believe will remain as long as the firm is spending effort towards improving its cancer treatment. This cancer treatment is the  living genetically engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell expected …

The Week in Review #13 From the Prohost Portfolio - 1. Betting on the technology - HALOZYME - As expected, the pulse of fat agreements with HALO is accelerating . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe or here to log in.

Gilead Sciences (GILD) has unsurprisingly agreed to acquire Cell Design Labs in a structured buy out valued for up to $567 million, including the shares of Cell Design Labs held by Kite, the CAR T firm that Gilead has recently acquired. Brian Atwood, President and CEO of Cell Design Labs, Inc., said, “Bringing our robust technology platforms under the Gilead umbrella, with its outstanding research …

All the necessities, including future plans, are being taken care of by institutions, academia and biotech companies that are increasingly offering the medical community what they need to treat diseases based on their genetic mutations, if any. In recent news, a publicly-traded biotech firm called Foundation Medicine (FMI) has offered the medical community what could bring hope for change in the the treatment of diseases, …

Prohost Letter #415 New Promising Technologies PROTAC - A Technology That Offers a Superior Class of Drugs PROTAC is an approach that created a new class of drugs described as superior and far less toxic than targeted drugs known to block disease-­causing proteins. The technology belongs to a private Company called Arvinas . . . This content is for paid subscribers. Please click here to subscribe …

The Week in Review #12 Answering You - Many questions still need answers in the biotech’s fast moving universe and we are doing our best to answer them.  We found out that we should start answering questions even though we are in a middle of a reasonably short vacation that we dared to take after over 5 years of constant working . . . This …