EBS Gets Funded, HPTX Pulls Plug On Diabetes Drug Candidate, Panther On The Mend

(RTTNews) - Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS) has been awarded a five-year contract, valued at up to $29 million, by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop a dry formulation of NuThrax, the company's next generation anthrax vaccine candidate. NuThrax is currently under phase II testing.

EBS closed Monday's trading at $22.66, down 1.18%.

Hyperion Therapeutics Inc. (HPTX) is pulling the plug on a late-stage drug candidate DiaPep277 for newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes, which came into its fold when it acquired Andromeda Biotech Ltd. in June of this year.

The move comes in response to serious misconduct by certain employees of Andromeda Biotech, including collusion with a third-party biostatistics firm in Israel to improperly receive un-blinded data from a phase III efficacy trial of DiaPep277, dubbed DIA-AID1, and to use such data in order to manipulate the analyses to obtain a favorable result.

HPTX closed Monday's trading at $25.92, down 6.22%.

Panther Biotechnology Inc. (PBYA.PK) is awaiting to implement a 6-1 forward stock split to increase liquidity and up-list to the NASDAQ or NYSE. The exact date of the split is still pending.

Originally incorporated as New Era Filing Services Inc., the company changed its name to NEF Enterprises Inc. on October 4, 2011, only to be renamed Panther Biotechnology Inc. on May 29, 2014.

PBYA.PK closed Monday's trading at $20, down 35.48%.

PharmAthene Inc. (PIP) has formed a strategic alliance with privately-held Nanotherapeutics Inc to advance the development of certain medical countermeasures for the U.S. biodefense market. Under the Alliance Agreement, each company will contribute its specific expertise and resources with the objective of advancing biodefense products to be agreed to under individual product plans.

PIP touched a 52-week high of $2.45 on Monday before closing at $2.30.

TESARO Inc. (TSRO) has submitted the New Drug Application to the FDA seeking approval for oral Rolapitant for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. The company licensed exclusive rights for the development, manufacture, commercialization and distribution of Rolapitant from OPKO Health Inc. (OPK).

TSRO closed Monday's trading 1.57% higher at $30.44.

Theravance Biopharma Inc.'s (TBPH) ongoing phase 2b dose-ranging study of investigational long-acting muscarinic antagonist - TD-4208 - has met its primary and secondary efficacy endpoints in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The study evaluated four doses of TD-4208 (44, 88, 175 and 350 mcg) and placebo, administered once daily for 28 days in a double-blind, parallel group study in a total of 355 patients with moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Spun off by Theravance Inc. (THRX), Theravance Biopharma Inc. began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market as a separate entity under ticker symbol "TBPH" on June 2, 2014.

TBPH closed Monday's trading at $28.75, up 2.61%.