→ Paratek Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals‘ $PRTK Nuzyra (omada­cy­cline) has met all pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary clin­i­cal study end­points in their OA­SIS-2 Phase III clin­i­cal tri­al, ac­cord­ing to re­sults pub­lished in The Lancet In­fec­tious Dis­eases. In the study, in­volv­ing 735 adults with AB­SS­SI, Nuzyra was shown to be as ef­fec­tive as Pfiz­er‘s $PFE twice-dai­ly oral-on­ly Zyvox (line­zol­id). Nuzyra is cur­rent­ly avail­able in the US as a once-dai­ly oral and in­tra­venous an­tibi­ot­ic for the treat­ment of adults with com­mu­ni­ty-ac­quired bac­te­r­i­al pneu­mo­nia and AB­SS­SI. The drug is al­so be­ing stud­ied for the treat­ment of uri­nary tract in­fec­tions.

→ Wrap­ping a week of big opi­oid law­suit news, Al­ler­gan $AGN dis­closed that it’s set­tled with two Ohio coun­ties, avoid­ing a mul­ti-de­fen­dant tri­al sched­uled for Oc­to­ber. The drug­mak­er — which con­tends that it has not ac­tive­ly mar­ket­ed or pro­mot­ed any opi­oid prod­ucts since 2013 and that it does not have li­a­bil­i­ty for gener­ic claims — said it’s seek­ing in­dem­ni­fi­ca­tion from oth­er par­ties in the fed­er­al lit­i­ga­tion. Per the set­tle­ment, Al­ler­gan is pay­ing $1.9 mil­lion to Sum­mit Coun­ty and $3.1 mil­lion to Cuya­hoga Coun­ty.

→ On the heels of a fast track des­ig­na­tion, Akari Ther­a­peu­tics has added or­phan sta­tus to its lead drug no­ma­co­pan’s cre­den­tials. The C5 in­hibitor is be­ing po­si­tioned as a treat­ment for hematopoi­et­ic stem cell trans­plant-as­so­ci­at­ed throm­bot­ic mi­croan­giopa­thy in pe­di­atric pa­tients. The biotech plans to com­mence a piv­otal tri­al in the fourth quar­ter this year, said COO Clive Richard­son, who was in­stalled as in­ter­im CEO more than a year ago af­ter David Horn was oust­ed amid a scan­dal.

Aclaris Therapeutics has found a way to get rid of the warts and all.

The company — which earlier this month decided to focus on its arsenal of kinase inhibitors — on Monday unveiled positive data from a pivotal study testing its lead experimental drug for use in common warts.

The drug, A-101, was tested in a 502-patient study called THWART-2 — patients enrolled had one to six warts before qualifying for the trial. Patients either self-administered A-101 topical solution or a vehicle twice a week over a two-month period. A higher proportion of patients on the drug (a potent hydrogen peroxide topical solution) saw their warts disappear at day 60, versus the vehicle (p<0.0001) — meeting the main goal of the study.  Each secondary endpoint also emerged in favor of A-101, the company said.

Psychedelics have experienced a renaissance in recent years amid a torrent of preclinical and clinical research suggesting it might provide a path to treat mood disorders conventional remedies have only scraped at. Now a preclinical trial from a young biotech suggests at least one psychedelic compound has effects beyond the mind, and — if you believe the still very, very early hype — could provide the first single remedy for some of the main complications of obesity.

Over the past 10 years I’ve made a point of getting to know the Golden Triangle and the special role the UK biopharma industry plays there in drug development. The concentration of world class research institutes, some of the most accomplished scientists I’ve ever seen at work and a rising tide of global investment cash leaves an impression that there’s much, much more to come as biotech hubs are birthed and nurtured.

Acceleron is scrapping a muscular dystrophy development program underway for its number 2 drug in the pipeline after pouring over some failed mid-stage secondary data.

Gone is the ACE-083 project in patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. Their drug hit the primary endpoint on building muscle but flopped on key secondaries for functional improvements in patients, which execs felt was vital to the drug’s success.