Travis Whit­fill

→  Farm­ing­ton, CT-based Az­i­tra has raised close to $3 mil­lion in a Se­ries A de­signed to fu­el its re­search on mi­cro­bio­me ther­a­pies for the skin. Seed­ed by Pe­ter Thiel’s Break­out Labs, the com­pa­ny iden­ti­fied a strain of bac­te­ria that can be used in lo­tions to treat con­di­tions like eczema and staph in­fec­tions. Bios Part­ners led the round. “The cur­rent ap­proach of on­ly ad­dress­ing a dis­ease’s symp­toms alone is in­ef­fec­tive, and the mi­cro­bio­me is a nascent area of ground­break­ing sci­ence that has enor­mous po­ten­tial,” said Az­i­tra co-founder Travis Whit­fill. “That’s why we were pas­sion­ate about launch­ing a com­mer­cial or­ga­ni­za­tion that har­ness­es the pow­er of the skin’s own mi­cro­bio­me to de­vel­op a new kind of der­ma­tol­ogy treat­ment. Such treat­ments are po­ten­tial­ly safer, more high­ly tar­get­ed, and work bet­ter with few­er side ef­fects than what’s cur­rent­ly avail­able for of­ten in­tractable con­di­tions.”

→ Cam­bridge, MA-based Sen­tien Biotech­nolo­gies closed a $12 mil­lion Se­ries A in­vest­ment round. The fi­nanc­ing was co-led by Boehringer In­gel­heim Ven­ture Fund USA and BioIn­no­va­tion Cap­i­tal, and joined by Chiesi Ven­tures, MBL Ven­ture Cap­i­tal and Mass Med­ical An­gels. The Se­ries A round will be used to fund ini­tial clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment of Sen­tien’s SBI-101 for the treat­ment of acute kid­ney in­jury.

→ At­lanta-based Avi­ra­gen has be­gun a strate­gic re­view af­ter a clin­i­cal fail­ure left the biotech mired in pen­ny stock ter­ri­to­ry. In back-to-back set­backs, Avi­ra­gen Ther­a­peu­tics $AVIR said that its lead drug vapen­davir flunked a Phase IIb in mod­er­ate to se­vere asth­mat­ics with a rhi­novirus in­fec­tion. Every­thing is on the ta­ble, in­clud­ing a merg­er, in-li­cens­ing and an ac­qui­si­tion.

→ A new bill pro­vid­ing tax cred­its for con­tract re­search has been filed in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. The leg­is­la­tion, if ever passed, would ben­e­fit CROs.

The US Solicitor General is calling on the Supreme Court to take up a fiercely debated case that could have a chilling effect on generic drug companies’ willingness to bring their copycats to market under so-called “skinny” labels, meaning the generic can only be approved for some of the reference product’s indications.

The case in question relates to GSK’s win over Teva in a long-running battle over the generic giant’s skinny label for GSK’s beta-blocker Coreg (carvedilol). At the time in 2007, Teva’s generic label first included two of the three Coreg indications, but Teva did not initially win approval for the third indication for congestive heart failure.

RNA biotech GreenLight Biosciences has been handed an offer for potential acquisition.

GreenLight said in a release that it has received a non-binding “indication of interest” from Fall Line Endurance Fund to acquire GreenLight’s capital stock for $0.60 per share in cash. The release said any potential agreement between the two parties would depend on certain conditions.

Through a special committee, the biotech will evaluate the offer but added there’s no certainty a deal will go forward. GreenLight will also not make any more announcements until a deal comes through or “otherwise determines” a statement is necessary.

The German life science group Sartorius will be picking up French contract manufacturer Polyplus for the price of €2.4 billion, or $2.6 billion.

On Friday, Sartorius announced the acquisition through its French subgroup, Sartorius Stedim Biotech, which will be acquiring Polyplus from private investors Archimed and WP GG Holdings IV. Polyplus has 270 employees and produces materials and components that go into making viral vectors that are used in cell and gene therapies. This includes DNA/RNA reagents as well as plasmid DNA. Polyplus has locations in France, Belgium, China and the US.

Sarissa Capital gained another foothold in its takeover of Amarin with the departure of the Irish drugmaker’s CEO.

Amarin revealed Friday in an SEC filing that Karim Mikhail resigned as president and CEO earlier this week. However, there’s still an ongoing dispute between Mikhail and Amarin, with the now ex-CEO insisting that he has a claim to severance as a result of his resignation. However, Amarin says it disagrees and plans to dispute that claim.