→ Kala Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, one of the pletho­ra of biotechs that trace their roots to the pro­lif­ic lab at MIT led by Bob Langer, on Thurs­day dis­closed that its ex­per­i­men­tal drug for short-term dry eye re­lief did not pass muster with the FDA. Last year, the com­pa­ny post­ed mixed da­ta from two stud­ies — STRIDE 1 and STRIDE 2. Kala $KALA is now bank­ing on the on­go­ing STRIDE 3 study to re­verse its for­tunes. It ex­pects STRIDE 3 to read out by the end of the year, and to re­sub­mit its mar­ket­ing ap­pli­ca­tion the first half of 2020.

While dis­ap­point­ing, the CRL is not com­plete­ly un­ex­pect­ed, COO Todd Baze­more said. The com­pa­ny had ini­ti­at­ed STRIDE 3 last year at the ad­vice of the FDA, and is con­fi­dent that they have now got­ten the in­clu­sion/ex­clu­sion cri­te­ria right by screen­ing out pa­tients with un­sta­ble symp­toms. Once they have the da­ta, he added, they can re­file an NDA un­der a type 2 sub­mis­sion, which en­tails a 6-month in­stead of 12-month re­view.

Point­ing to No­var­tis‘ re­cent $5.3 bil­lion pur­chase of Shire’s Xi­idra — whose ap­proval process in­spired Kala to take its chances the first time — Baze­more em­pha­sized the po­ten­tial of KPI-121: “There’s so few prod­ucts in this cat­e­go­ry, it’s a huge un­tapped cat­e­go­ry in which on­ly about a mil­lion and a half of the 30 mil­lion pa­tients are cur­rent­ly be­ing treat­ed with a pre­scrip­tion prod­uct.”

→ Em­bat­tled In­sys, en­gulfed in lit­i­ga­tion and fi­nan­cial­ly starved, has found a buy­er for its unit-dose nasal and sub­lin­gual spray man­u­fac­tur­ing equip­ment, as well as two pipeline prod­ucts — nalox­one nasal spray and ep­i­neph­rine nasal spray — in UK-based Hik­ma. “Hik­ma is the largest sup­pli­er of gener­ic nasal sprays in the US and we have been look­ing for ways to build up­on our strong man­u­fac­tur­ing plat­form and ex­pand our prod­uct port­fo­lio,” said Hik­ma’s pres­i­dent of gener­ics Bri­an Hoff­mann in a state­ment.

→ Los An­ge­les biotech BioVie, which in April post­ed pos­i­tive da­ta from a small study test­ing its in­fu­sion ther­a­py for se­ri­ous com­pli­ca­tion of ad­vanced liv­er cir­rho­sis, on Thurs­day amend­ed the terms of its im­pend­ing IPO. The com­pa­ny now plans to raise $15 mil­lion by of­fer­ing 1.3 mil­lion shares for $11.44/share, the as-con­vert­ed last close of its shares on the over-the-counter mar­ket. The com­pa­ny, which plans to list un­der the sym­bol BIVI, had pre­vi­ous­ly filed to of­fer 1.3 mil­lion priced at $11.88/share.

For iTeos, it turned out, $75 million could only last so long.

Two years after announcing their eye-catching Series B raise, the Belgian biotech is back with an even larger Series B-2: $125 million.

The now $200 million financing illustrates the vast capital available for those with promising new immuno-oncology compounds, particularly those that might be used in combination with existing therapies. In December, iTeos announced a collaboration with Merck to test its lead compound with Keytruda this year. The proceeds will push forward that trial and help fund the ongoing Phase I/II trials for that compound, EOS-850, and a second one, EOS-448.

In a leap to the gene therapy space, Daiichi Sankyo has dropped $200 million to access Ultragenyx’s manufacturing technology, providing the rare disease biotech with plenty of cash and a stock boost amid a general cash crunch.

For $125 million in cash and a $75 million equity investment, Daiichi Sankyo has bought a non-exclusive license to the IP around two platforms with which it plans to develop AAV-based gene therapy products. The Japanese pharma is purchasing the stock $RARE at $60 per share, more than a third above its current price of $44.43.

Gilead’s bid to overturn a jury verdict that ordered it to pay Bristol Myers Squibb about $752 million for CAR-T patents owned by its subsidiary Juno Therapeutics has ended in vain.

The ruling leaves Gilead vulnerable to an even bigger $1.5 billion payment that Bristol is now demanding — adding fuel to the fiery criticism some analysts are already heaping on its $11.9 billion Kite buyout.

In a 30-page document unsealed on Monday, Judge James Otero of the district court in Los Angeles struck down several different arguments for a new decision. Here are Morgan Stanley analysts’ takeaways:
The court, in particular, denied Kite’s contentions (1) that Juno’s patent is invalid, (2) the damages award was unreasonable, and (3) that a new trial should take place. The court also denied Kite’s argument that its infringement was not willful.
Gilead is likely to appeal to the federal circuit, they noted, but the odds are not in their favor as the same standard for evidence will be applied in that court. Appeals typically take 16 months.

Using lab-grown proteins that are engineered to mimic the architecture of viruses to induce an immune response, VBI Vaccines is joining the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine — harnessing technology that has initially been proved safe in early trials as a prophylactic for cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection.

Unlike the raft of the companies in the Covid-19 vaccine race — including Moderna, CureVac and J&J — VBI is taking a pan-coronavirus approach, by developing a vaccine that will encompass Covid-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).