CEO, a member of a few boards, or in venture capital.
—ZymoGenetics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ZGEN]]) had some minor ups and downs this week with its lone marketed product, recombinant thrombin (Recothrom) for surgical bleeding. The drug has been cleared for sale in the U.S. for almost two years, but Zymo’s partner, Germany-based Bayer, said this week that it withdrew an application to market the drug in Europe after regulators there said the company would need to run another clinical trial. Canadian regulators saw the data differently, giving the drug the green light for marketing there, and ZymoGenetics pocketed a $3.5 million payment from Bayer for hitting that milestone.
—Pathway Medical Technologies, the Kirkland, WA-based maker of a device that drills out blockages in leg arteries, said this week it won clearance to start selling the tool in the European Union.
—Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GILD]]) finally got some good news for its cystic fibrosis drug in the U.S. FDA staff have stalled the company’s application to market aztreonam lysine, an inhalable antibiotic, but an advisory panel to the agency voted in favor of the product. Gilead, while based in Foster City, CA, maintains a sizable lung disease research operation in Seattle that it obtained through the acquisition of Corus Pharma in 2006.
—Oncothyreon got another good break this week. The Seattle-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ONTY]]) said its partner, Germany-based Merck KGaA, started another pivotal clinical trial of Stimuvax for patients in Asia with lung cancer. Investors had given up on this program a year ago, but that was before Oncothyreon shifted most of the development costs to its partner and retained a royalty share of the drug’s sales, and Merck KGaA showed a lot of faith in the program by starting a pair of new pivotal clinical trials.
