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Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Sutro Biopharma prices upsized IPO at $15 midpoint


Sutro Biopharma, a Phase 1 biotech developing next-generation immuno-oncology therapies, raised $85 million by offering 5.67 million shares at $15, the midpoint of the $14 to $16 range. The company raised $10 million more than it had planned (+13%) by offering additional shares.
Insiders had intended to purchase $30 million of the IPO (35% of the deal), while Merck agreed to invest $10 million in a concurrent private placement.
Sutro Biopharma plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol STRO. Cowen and Piper Jaffray acted as lead managers on the deal.

Cancer biotech Arvinas prices upsized IPO at $16, the high end of the range


Arvinas Holding, a preclinical biotech developing protein degradation therapies for advanced cancers, raised $120 million by offering 7.5 million shares at $16, the high end of the $14 to $16 range. The company raised $20 million more than it had planned by pricing at the high end and offering 0.83 million additional shares.
Insiders had intended to purchase $40 million of the IPO (33% of the deal).
Arvinas plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol ARVN. Goldman Sachs, Citi and Piper Jaffray acted as lead managers on the deal.

Eli Lilly, Chugai enter into license pact for diabetes med


Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Eli Lilly and Company today announced they have entered into a license agreement for OWL833, Chugai’s oral non-peptidic GLP-1 receptor agonist. OWL833 is a Phase 1-ready asset that is being studied for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will receive worldwide development and commercialization rights to OWL833. Chugai will receive an upfront payment of $50M and is eligible for milestone payments based on achievement of certain predetermined milestones. If the molecule is successfully commercialized, Chugai would also be eligible for royalty payments. There will be no change to Chugai’s consolidated financials forecast for the fiscal year ending December 2018 as a result of this transaction. This transaction will be reflected in Lilly’s reported results and financial guidance according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. There will be no change to Lilly’s 2018 non-GAAP earnings per share guidance as a result of this transaction. This transaction is subject to potential competition authority clearances and other customary closing conditions.
https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2796165

Henry Schein’s Upcoming Animal Health Spin-Off Could Unlock 30% To 50% Upside


Henry Schien will be spinning-off its animal health business and merging it with Vets First Choice (VFC), a private company. We believe the transaction will unlock significant shareholder value.
HSIC disclosed in April, 5,100 vets were using VFC’s tech-enabled pharmacy platform, but our recent big data scrape indicates it is on pace for 9,000 vets by year-end (+76%).
We also conducted a survey of 100 vets using VFC and find strong user satisfaction, and meaningful revenue uplift opportunities benefiting both vets and HSIC alike.
In the coming weeks, we expect HSIC to provide more information on the spin, and eventually host an Analyst Day offering longer-term guidance. We expect the spin to open up a broader shareholder base, and attract significant analyst coverage.
HSIC/VFC will be the fastest growing play in the hot animal space. Our sum-of-the-parts base case yields $106/share assuming multiples in line with peers, and +50% should it receive a premium multiple.

JPMorgan Resumes Eli Lilly: ‘One Of The Best-Positioned Names In Our Group’


Shares of big-cap pharma names have been on a solid uptrend since the second-quarter earnings season in late July.
Against this backdrop, Eli Lilly And Co LLY 0.6%‘s prospects prompted a JPMorgan analyst to turn bullish on stock Wednesday.

The Analyst

Analyst Christ Schott resumed coverage on Eli Lilly with an Overweight and year-end 2019 price target of $117.

The Thesis

Eli Lilly is “fundamentally one of the best-positioned names in our group,” Schott said in a Wednesday note. (See his track record here.)
The bull thesis is predicated on the healthy growth of core products including Trulicity, Taltz and Jardiance and the next wave of late-stage pipeline assets such as CGRP, tanezumab and GIP/GLP-1, the analyst said.
JPMorgan projects that Eli Lilly will generate above-average topline growth of about 5-percent CAGR; significant margin expansion from 27 percent in 2018 to mid-30-percent by 2024; and health EPS growth of about 10 percent CAGR.
Schott named the following as near-term catalysts for the stock:
  • The readout from the Trulicity REWIND CV study due early in the early fourth quarter.
  • Clinical data from GIP/GLP-1 program.
  • Phase 3 data from tanezumab due in late 2018 or early 2019.
The above catalysts could support upside to Street estimates, the analyst said.
Despite Lilly’s strong run year-to-date, JPMorgan continues to see an attractive setup the stock.

Biotech Investors: Mark Your Calendar For These October PDUFA Dates


September had several clinical trial results announcements and a few FDA approvals triggering moves in the space. New molecular moiety, or NME, approvals totalled a mere three in September, taking the total NME approvals for 2018 to 37 compared to 46 in 2017.
Here are the PDUFA catalysts for the upcoming month.
PDUFA dates are deadlines for the FDA to review new drugs. The FDA is normally given 10 months to review new drugs. If a drug is selected for priority review, the FDA is allotted 6 months to review the drug. These time frames begin on the date that an NDA is accepted by the FDA as complete.

Will FDA Go With Panel Decision And Greenlight Paratek’s Broad Spectrum Antibiotic?

  • Company: Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc PRTK
  • Type of Application: Two separate NDAs
  • Candidate: Omadacycline
  • Indication: Antibiotic to treat Community-acquired pneumonia, or CAB, and acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, or ABSSSI
  • Date: Early October
The FDA accepted the NDAs for priority review in April. FDA’s Antimicrobials Drug Advisory Committee, which discussed the NDA Aug. 8, voted in favor of approving both intravenous and oral formulations of the candidate for both CAB and ABSSI.
“A modernized tetracycline, omadacycline is specifically designed to overcome tetracycline resistance and exhibits activity across a broad spectrum of bacteria, including Gram-positive, Gram-negative, anaerobes, atypical bacteria, and other drug-resistant strains,” the company said.

Roche Seeks Approval For Expanded Indication For Blood Disorder Drug

  • Company: Roche Holdings AG Basel ADR RHHBY 0.03% unit Genentech
  • Type of Application: sBLA
  • Candidate: Hemlibra
  • Indication: Treating adults and children with haemophilia A without factor VIII inhibitors
  • Date: Oct. 4
Roche announced FDA acceptance of the application and according of Priority Review status June 5. The application was submitted based on data from Phase III HAVEN 3 study. Hemlibra was earlier approved by the FDA in Nov. 2017 to prevent or reduce the frequency of bleeding episodes in adults and children with haemophilia A with factor VIII inhibitors.

Bausch’s Psoriasis Treatment Awaits FDA Vetting

  • Company: Bausch Health Companies Inc BHC 1.09%
  • Type of Application: NDA
  • Candidate: IDP-122 lotion, chemically halobetasol propionate 0.01%
  • Indication: Plaque psoriasis
  • Date: Oct. 5
Bausch’s Ortho Dermatologics unit announced FDA acceptance of the NDA Feb. 14. The company said, if approved, the candidate will be the first high-potency topical steroid treatment for plaque psoriasis with dosing for as long as eight weeks.

Will FDA Give Its Nod For Ionis-Akcea’s Rare Disease Drug After The Three-Month Extension?

  • Company: Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc IONS 0.21%PTC Therapeutics, Inc. PTCT 0.74% and Akcea Therapeutics Inc AKCA 8.58%
  • Type of Application: NDA
  • Candidate: Inotersen (IONIS-TTRRx)
  • Indication: Treatment of patients with hereditary TTR amyloidosis (hATTR)
  • Date: Oct. 6
The FDA accepted Jan. 8 the NDA with Priority Review status, with an original PDUFA date of July 6. A three-month extension was announced by Ionis’s affiliate Akcea in its first-quarter earnings release. Inotersen is a RNA-targeted therapeutic for patients with hATTR amyloidosis and has already been approved in the EU.

Merck Awaits FDA Clearance For Two sBLAs

  • Company: Merck & Co., Inc. MRK 0.44%
  • Type of Application: sBLAs
  • Candidate: Gardasil 9 vaccine
  • Indication: An expanded age indication for GARDASIL 9 for use in women and men aged 27 to 45 for the prevention of certain cancers and diseases caused by the nine HPV types
  • Date: Oct. 6
And the other:
  • Candidate: Keytruda + carboplatin-paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel
  • Indication: First-line treatment for metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), regardless of PD-L1 expression
  • Date: Oct. 30

Can Regeneron-Sanofi Breath Easy With Dupixent Approval For Asthma

  • Company: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc REGN 0.38% and Sanofi SA SNY 1.26%
  • Type of Application: sBLA
  • Candidate: Dupixent
  • Indication: Adults and adolescents aged 12 years or older with moderate-to-severe asthma.
  • Date: Oct. 20
Dupixent is a monoclonal antibody approved already for the treatment of adults with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis whose condition is not properly controlled with topical therapies. Both companies have another tryst with the FDA on Oct. 28.
  • Type of Application: BLA
  • Candidate: Cemiplimab
  • Indication: Metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, or CSCC, or patients with locally advanced CSCC who are not candidates for surgery
  • Date: Oct. 28

ADMA Seeks FDA Nod For Relaunch of Immunodeficiency Treatment

  • Company: ADMA Biologics Inc ADMA 3.58%
  • Type of Application: Prior Approval Supplement, or PAS to amend the FDA-approved BLA
  • Candidate: Bivigam
  • Indication: Treatment of primary humoral immunodeficiency
  • Date: Oct. 25

Jazz Knocks FDA Altar For Pediatric Sleep Disorder Drug

  • Company: Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC JAZZ 0.59%
  • Type of Application: sNDA
  • Candidate: Xyrem oral solution
  • Indication: Cataplexy and excessive daytime sleepiness in pediatric narcolepsy patients
  • Date: Oct. 27

TherapeuticsMD’s Seeks Approval For Drug to Treat Perimenopausal Symptoms

  • Company: TherapeuticsMD Inc TXMD 1.76%
  • Type of Application: NDA
  • Candidate: TX-001HR (bio-identical hormone therapy combination of estradiol and progesterone in a single, oral softgel)
  • Indication: Moderate-to-severe vasomotor symptoms due to menopause
  • Date: Oct. 28

Paratek-Allergan’s Acne Treatment Candidate Awaits Clearance

  • Company: Paratek Pharma and Allergan plc AGN 1.54%
  • Type of Application: NDA
  • Candidate: Sarecycline
  • Indication: Moderate to severe acne vulgaris in patients 9 years of age and older
  • Date: October (estimated based on the 10-month standard review period from the NDA acceptance date of Dec. 20)

Adcom Meeting Schedule

The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee will meet Oct. 10 to discuss Celltrion’s BLA for CT-P10, a proposed biosimilar to Genentech’s Rituxan, for treating CD20-positive, B-cell Non–Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
The Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee of the FDA will discuss Oct. 11 Trevena Inc TRVN 4.72%‘s NDA for oliceridine 1 milligram/milliliter injection for the management of moderate-to-severe acute pain in adult patients for whom an intravenous opioid is warranted. The committee will evaluate safety, efficacy as well as benefit-risk considerations.
The Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee will also review AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc ACRX 2.41%‘s NDA for sufentanil sublingual tablets for treating moderate-to-severe acute pain severe enough to require an opioid analgesic and for which alternative treatments are inadequate. The committee will look at risk-benefit considerations and also recommend approvability of the candidate. The Adcom meeting is scheduled for Oct. 12. The NDA was handed down a CRL in Oct. 2017 following which a resubmission has been made, with the new PDUFA date set for Nov. 3, 2018.
The FDA has convened a joint meeting of the Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee Oct. 17 to discuss Sloan Pharma’s sNDA for Zelnorm for the treatment of women with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation who don’t have a history of cardiovascular ischemic disease.
The Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee will discuss Oct. 18 Shire PLC SHPG 1.39%unit Shire Development, LLC’s NDA for prucalopride tablets for oral administration to treat chronic idiopathic constipation in adults.

Liquidia Technologies Added to Russell 2000®, 3000® and Microcap® Indexes


 Liquidia Technologies, Inc. (LQDA) (“Liquidia”), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of human therapeutics using its proprietary PRINT® technology to transform the lives of patients, today announced that it has been added to the Russell 2000®, Russell 3000® and Russell Microcap® Indexes, effective after market close on September 21, 2018, as part of Russell’s quarterly addition of companies with recent initial public offerings.
The Russell 2000 Index measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity market and is a subset of the Russell 3000. Membership in the Russell 2000 Index includes automatic inclusion in the appropriate growth and value indexes, such the Russell Microcap Index. The Russell Microcap Index represents small-cap and micro-cap stocks.
“Inclusion in the Russell 2000, Russell 3000 and Russell Microcap Indexes offers the opportunity to broaden Liquidia’s presence within the investment community,” said Neal Fowler, Chief Executive Officer of Liquidia. “We are pleased to be added to these indexes and believe that we are well-positioned following our successful initial public offering in July.”
Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for active investment strategies. Approximately $9 trillion in assets are benchmarked against Russell’s U.S. indexes. Russell indexes are part of FTSE Russell, a leading global index provider.