On March 12, 2018 Arbutus Biopharma Corporation (Nasdaq:ABUS), an industry-leading Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) therapeutic solutions company, reported that it will hold a conference call on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 1:30 PM Pacific Time (4:30 PM Eastern Time) to discuss fourth quarter 2017 year-end financial results and provide a corporate update (Press release, Arbutus Biopharma, MAR 12, 2018, View Source [SID1234524668]).

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To access the conference call, a live webcast of the call can be accessed through the Investor section of Arbutus’ website at www.arbutusbio.com. Or, alternatively, to access the conference call, please dial 1-914-495-8556 or 1-866-393-1607.

An archived webcast will be available on the Arbutus website after the event. Alternatively, you may access a replay of the conference call by calling 1-404-537-3406 or 1-855-859-2056 and referencing conference ID 8777644.

On March 12, 2018 -Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) reported the appointment of Dr. Phil Febbo, a leading physician scientist, as Chief Medical Officer (CMO), starting March 26, 2018 (Press release, , DEC 12, 2018, View Source [SID1234524691]). In his new role, Dr. Febbo will be responsible for developing and executing on the Company’s medical strategy to drive genomic testing into healthcare practice.

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"We are very excited to welcome Dr. Febbo, who comes to us at a transformative time in the evolution of genomic medicine"

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"We are very excited to welcome Dr. Febbo, who comes to us at a transformative time in the evolution of genomic medicine," said Garret Hampton, Ph.D., Executive Vice President of Clinical Genomics at Illumina. "Phil brings a wealth of clinical and scientific experience to Illumina, from understanding the genomic basis of common human cancers, to the development of clinical tests based on next generation sequencing. We believe that his experience will ensure that Illumina is uniquely positioned to change medical practice with the use of genomics."

For the past 25 years, Dr. Febbo has worked at leading institutions throughout the United States, most recently serving as CMO of Genomic Health (NASDAQ:GHDX). Prior to joining Genomic Health, Dr. Febbo served as Professor of Medicine and Urology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where his laboratory focused on using genomics to understand the biology and clinical behavior of prostate cancer, and his clinical practice focused on genitourinary oncology. While at UCSF, Dr. Febbo was the co-leader of the Prostate Cancer Program at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Program Principal Investigator of the Translational Research Program for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.

Dr. Febbo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Dartmouth College, received his M.D. degree at UCSF, and completed his internal medicine residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After his fellowship in medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, he was an Attending Physician in the Genitourinary Oncology Center at Dana-Farber, Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Todd Golub’s laboratory at Dana-Farber, as well as the Whitehead Institute Center for Genomic Research of MIT (now the Broad Institute). In 2004, Dr. Febbo moved to Duke University Medical Center’s Institute of Genome Sciences and Policy. He has been a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation since 2009.

Syros Pharmaceuticals has filed a 10-K – Annual report [Section 13 and 15(d), not S-K Item 405] with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Filing, 10-K, Syros Pharmaceuticals, 2018, MAR 12, 2018, View Source [SID1234524693]).

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On March 12, 2018 Avid Bioservices, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDMO) (NASDAQ:CDMOP), a dedicated contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) working to improve patient lives by providing high quality development and manufacturing services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, reported financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2018 ended January 31, 2018, and provided an update on its contract manufacturing operations, and other corporate highlights (Press release, Avid Bioservices, MAR 12, 2018, View Source [SID1234524669]).

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Highlights Since October 31, 2017

"During and subsequent to our third quarter of fiscal year 2018, Avid completed two primary objectives. We successfully divested the company’s lead immuno-oncology assets to an organization with the financial resources and expertise to advance them, and we established a new operational structure that will allow our business to take full advantage of the substantial and growing demand for biologics manufacturing," said Roger Lias, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Avid Bioservices. "With the divestiture of our lead R&D assets, our transition to a dedicated CDMO business is complete, and our team is entirely focused on expanding and diversifying our customer base, as well as strengthening our process development capabilities. At present, we are in late-stage negotiations with several potential new customers and expect to announce the executed agreements before the end of the fiscal year. In recent weeks, we also completed a financing raising $23.2 million in gross proceeds. These funds are essential as they will support our operations, including upgrading our process development capabilities to ensure that we are fully capable of servicing our customers with the highest quality standards and equipment. We made rapid progress during the third quarter that we believe will allow us to build backlog and achieve sustainable growth in the future."

Recent CDMO Developments

Advanced eight current clients, some with multiple projects, through various stages of development.

Selected by Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to provide process development and clinical manufacturing services in support of ACU193, which is being developed for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
° Avid and Acumen will immediately commence process development work with the goal of creating a robust, cost-effective and scalable process to support cGMP manufacture of ACU193.
Recent Corporate Developments and Financial Highlights

Changed company name from Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to Avid Bioservices, Inc.
° As the Avid name is recognized in the industry for CDMO excellence and biologics manufacturing expertise, the brand is an important asset in the company’s transition to a dedicated CDMO business. The company also adopted the new NASDAQ ticker symbol, "CDMO" (NASDAQ:CDMO).

Reconstituted board of directors including six independent directors, all with significant CDMO experience.

Entered into an Asset Assignment and Purchase Agreement with Oncologie, Inc. for Avid’s phosphatidylserine (PS)-targeting program including bavituximab.
° Avid expects to receive an aggregate of $8.0 million in upfront payments over a period of six months and will be eligible to receive up to $95.0 million in development, regulatory and commercialization milestones.
° Oncologie, Inc. will be responsible for all future research, development and commercialization of bavituximab, and related intellectual property costs.
° Avid will receive royalties on net sales that are upward tiering into the mid-teens.
° Oncologie will enter into an agreement with Avid for future contract development and manufacturing activities in support of bavituximab.

Completed a public offering of 10,294,445 shares of common stock raising gross proceeds of approximately $23.2 million.
° Avid intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to support the growth of its contract manufacturing business and general corporate purposes.

The company maintains its manufacturing revenue guidance for the full FY 2018 of $50.0 million – $55.0 million.

The current manufacturing revenue backlog has increased to $39 million.

Contract manufacturing revenue from Avid’s clinical and commercial biomanufacturing services was $6.8 million for the third quarter of FY 2018 compared to $10.7 million for the third quarter of FY 2017. The decline was primarily due to lower demand from one of our largest customers.

Cost of contract manufacturing increased to $11.0 million in the third quarter of FY 2018 compared to $8.0 million for the third quarter of FY 2017. The current period increase in cost of manufacturing is primarily attributed to idle capacity costs of $5.3 million due to lower facility and personnel utilization compared to no idle capacity costs reported in the same prior year quarter.

Selling, general and administrative expenses for the third quarter of FY 2018 were $4.8 million, compared to $4.4 million for the third quarter of FY 2017. The current period increase in costs was primarily due to legal and other related fees associated with the settlement agreement with certain investors regarding the composition of the company’s board of directors and legal and advisory fees associated with the Asset Assignment and Purchase Agreement with Oncologie, Inc.

As of January 31, 2018, the company’s research and development segment met all the conditions to be classified as a discontinued operation. Accordingly, the operating results of our research and development segment are reported as a loss from discontinued operations for all periods presented.

Avid’s consolidated net loss attributable to common stockholders was $12.4 million or $0.28 per share, for the third quarter of FY 2018, compared to a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $9.2 million, or $0.25 per share, for the same prior year quarter.

Avid reported $17.9 million in cash and cash equivalents as of January 31, 2018, compared to $46.8 million at fiscal year ended April 30, 2017. Following the completion of a public offering during February 2018, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $41.7 million as of February 28, 2018.
More detailed financial information and analysis may be found in Avid’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission today.

Conference Call

Avid will host a conference call and webcast this afternoon, March 12, 2018, at 4:30 PM EDT (1:30 PM PDT).

To listen to the conference call, please dial (877) 312-5443 or (253) 237-1126 and request the Avid Bioservices conference call. To listen to the live webcast, or access the archived webcast, please visit: View Source

About Avid Bioservices, Inc.
Avid Bioservices is a dedicated contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on development and cGMP manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products derived from mammalian cell culture. The company provides a comprehensive range of process development, high quality cGMP clinical and commercial manufacturing services for the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries. With nearly 25 years of experience producing monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins in batch, fed-batch and perfusion modes, Avid’s services include cGMP clinical and commercial product manufacturing, purification, bulk packaging, stability testing and regulatory strategy, submission and support. The company also provides a variety of process development activities, including cell line development and optimization, cell culture and feed optimization, analytical methods development and product characterization. For more information, please visit www.avidbio.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release which are not purely historical, including statements regarding Avid Bioservices’ intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations, representations, projections, plans or predictions of the future, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risk the company may experience delays in engaging new clients, the risk that the company may experience technical difficulties in processing customer orders which could delay delivery of products to customers, revenue recognition and receipt of payment or the loss of the customer, the risk that one or more existing customers terminates its contract prior to completion or reduces or delays its demand for development or manufacturing services, the risk that the company may need to use the majority of its cash to fund operations, thereby delaying the contemplated upgrade to its process development capabilities and expansion plans, and the risk that the company may not receive the full $8 million up front payment from Oncologie. Our business could be affected by a number of other factors, including the risk factors listed from time to time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, but not limited to, our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2017 and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, as well as any updates to these risk factors filed from time to time in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We caution investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, and we disclaim any obligation, and do not undertake, to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this press release except as may be required by law.

On March 12, 2018 Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:PTLA) reported new interim results from ANNEXA-4, the Company’s ongoing Phase 3b/4 trial of its investigational universal Factor Xa inhibitor antidote AndexXa (andexanet alfa) among patients experiencing acute major bleeding while taking a Factor Xa inhibitor (Press release, Portola Pharmaceuticals, MAR 12, 2018, View Source;p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2337591 [SID1234524680]). Interim data from 228 patients (of which 132 were adjudicated for efficacy) showed that AndexXa rapidly and significantly reversed anti-Factor Xa activity (the anticoagulant mechanism of these drugs) when administered as a bolus, and sustained this reversal when followed by a 120-minute infusion. In addition, 83 percent of these patients achieved excellent or good hemostasis (stoppage of bleeding) over a 12-hour period following treatment with AndexXa. Thrombotic events (11 percent) and death rates (12 percent) were consistent with previous ANNEXA-4 trial results and with the high background thrombotic risk of the enrolled patient population. Results were presented today in a Late-Breaking Clinical Trial Session at the American College of Cardiology’s 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo (ACC.18).

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"These data are particularly compelling when you consider the high-risk profile of the ANNEXA-4 population, which includes a substantial number of elderly patients presenting with intracranial hemorrhage and anticoagulated for venous thromboembolism, and the lack of any FDA- or EMA-approved reversal agent for these patients," said Stuart J. Connolly, M.D., ANNEXA-4 Executive Committee chairman and professor in the Department of Medicine of the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. "The interim efficacy and safety data continue to support the promising role of AndexXa as an antidote to reverse anticoagulation in Factor Xa-associated bleeding."

The use of Factor Xa inhibitors is continuing to grow at a significantly steady pace because of their demonstrated efficacy in preventing embolic diseases such as stroke and pulmonary embolism. However, the incidence of hospital admissions and death related to Factor Xa-inhibitor bleeding is also increasing. In the U.S. alone, there were approximately 117,000 hospital admissions attributable to Factor Xa-related bleeding in 2016 and more than 2,000 bleeding-related deaths per month.

"The ANNEXA-4 trial continues to demonstrate efficacy and safety results that are consistent with that of other therapies approved for anticoagulant reversal based on a single-arm study," said John Curnutte, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president, research and development at Portola. "We remain confident in the potential of AndexXa to address a clear and growing unmet need and we look forward to sharing these results with the U.S. and European regulatory authorities as they consider our marketing application for andexanet alfa."

The interim results included safety data from 227 of the 228 enrolled patients who experienced intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) (61 percent), gastrointestinal bleeding (27 percent) or bleeding from another site (11 percent) within 18 hours of administration of apixaban (117 patients), rivaroxaban (90 patients), enoxaparin (17 patients) or edoxaban (3 patients). Safety data for the one remaining patient, who was enrolled and active in the study, was not available at the time of this analysis.

During the 30-day follow-up period, the thrombotic event rate was 11 percent (n=24) for the entire population and 12 percent (n=17) among patients experiencing an ICH. The mortality rate for all patients was 12 percent (n=27). The rate of these events occurred within the range expected in this population given the severity of the bleeding, their advanced age and underlying thrombotic risk, and the percentage who restarted anticoagulant therapy (57 percent) following their bleeding episode.

Two of the 228 patients experienced an infusion reaction and none developed antibodies to Factor Xa or Factor X or neutralizing antibodies to AndexXa.

Data from the adjudicated efficacy population of 132 patients, who were confirmed to have major bleeding by the independent adjudication committee, and whose baseline anti-Factor Xa activity was substantially elevated (>75 ng/ml or 0.25 IU/mL if receiving enoxaparin), demonstrate that AndexXa rapidly and substantially reversed anti-Factor Xa activity, and these levels were sustained for the duration of administration.

Specifically, anti-Factor Xa activity, the co-primary efficacy endpoint, decreased by a median of greater than 90 percent for both apixaban and rivaroxaban following the bolus dose, which was sustained at similar levels for the duration of the two-hour infusion.

The independent adjudication committee determined that 109 of 132 patients (83 percent) achieved effective hemostasis, as defined by a hemostatic efficacy rating of "excellent" or "good" (the criteria used by the adjudication committee were based on similar criteria used in a pivotal study of Kcentra, approved for the reversal of Vitamin K antagonists). Among patients with gastrointestinal bleeding, 86 percent had effective hemostasis, as did 81 percent of patients with intracranial bleeding. Hemostatic efficacy was similar for patients on apixaban (82 percent) and rivaroxaban (83 percent).

Portola is developing andexanet alfa as a universal antidote for patients anticoagulated with an oral or injectable Factor Xa inhibitor, including apixaban and rivaroxaban, who experience a serious uncontrolled or life-threatening bleeding event or who require urgent or emergency surgery. Andexanet alfa is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with an assigned action date of May 4, 2018, and by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), with an expected decision in 2019.

ANNEXA-4 Study Design
ANNEXA-4 is a global, single-arm, open-label clinical trial designed to evaluate andexanet alfa in patients who present with an acute major bleed while receiving apixaban, rivaroxaban, edoxaban or enoxaparin. This multi-center, prospective cohort study is not randomized and all participants receive andexanet alfa given as a bolus dose over 20-30 minutes followed by a two-hour (120 minute) infusion. Patients receive a low or high dose depending on which Factor Xa inhibitor they have received and the time they received the last dose. Patients are evaluated for 30 days following andexanet alfa administration. The co-primary efficacy endpoints are the maximum percent reduction in anti-Factor Xa activity and assessment of hemostasis over 12 hours following the infusion. Hemostatic efficacy is assessed by an independent endpoint adjudication committee as either excellent, good or poor/none.

Investor Event Webcast Information
Members of Portola’s senior management team, together with Dr. C. Michael Gibson, ANNEXA-4 Executive Committee member, Harvard Medical School professor and chairman of the PERFUSE Study Group, will review these new interim results during a conference call and live audio webcast today at 12:30 p.m. ET (9:30 a.m. PT) following the Late-Breaking Clinical Trial Session.

The conference call can be accessed by phone by calling (844) 452-6828 from the United States and Canada or 1 (765) 507-2588 internationally and using the passcode 8493604. To access the live and subsequently archived webcast, go to the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at View Source A replay will be available for 30 days following the live event.