In the first of a two-part interview, “The Pink Sheet” DAILY talks with King Pharmaceuticals CEO Brian Markison and Chief Scientific Officer Eric Carter about the company’s hopes for a wave of new drug formulations to treat chronic pain with lower abuse potential.
The head of Teva’s European business explains why his company is so well placed in Europe, how it intends to meet its ambitious goal of growing revenues there 18.6 percent between 2010 and 2015, and why the German generics market, a place of great turmoil, remains attractive for Teva. The discussion comes as rumors swirl that Teva is one of the finalists bidding on ratiopharm, Germany’s second largest generics drug company.
In a transaction that reunites principals previously involved in Sugen, Kolltan Pharmaceuticals closed a $10 million Series B round on Jan. 20 led by Celtic Therapeutics. Notably, the transaction doesn’t involve any of the Series A investors in Kolltan, a next-generation oncology firm focused inhibition of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK). It also appears to represent a shift in strategy for Celtic, whose prior investments have been project-based rather than company-based.
The National Institutes of Health's three-year-old project to see more of the basic science discoveries it funds commercialized is headed into it's fourth year, with 45 of the planned 60 academic research centers formed into a consortium of Clinical and Translational Science Awardees that are learning to reach out to and work with industry as well as training a new generation of researchers who know how to take their discoveries all the way to the finish line.
