Company type | Public [1] |
---|---|
| |
Industry | Pharmaceuticals |
Founded | 2003 |
Founders | Charles J. Homcy, David R. Philips |
Fate | Acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals |
Headquarters | South San Francisco, California, United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Scott Garland (CEO) [1] |
Products | Andexxa Bevyxxa Cerdulatinib |
Revenue | $40,130 (2018) [1] |
Number of employees | 324 (2018) [1] |
Subsidiaries | Portola Pharma UK Limited |
Website | portola |
Portola Pharmaceuticals is an American clinical stage biotechnology company that researches, develops, and commercializes drugs. The company focuses primarily on drugs used in the treatment of thrombosis and hematological malignancies. [2] Founded in 2003 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Portola Pharmaceuticals is a member of the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index.
In May 2020, Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Portola announced that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement for Alexion to acquire Portola. [3]
The company was founded on September 2, 2003, [4] and named after Gaspar de Portolà, who was the first European to see San Francisco Bay. It completed an IPO on NASDAQ in May 2013. [5]
The company developed P2Y12 inhibitor Elinogrel, transferring rights to Novartis in 2009. [6] The rights were returned in 2012 to Portola, which decided not to continue development.
Portola Pharmaceuticals has collaboration agreements with SRX Cardio, Dermavant, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Daiichi Sankyo, Bayer, Janssen, BMS, and Pfizer. [7]
In the class action lawsuit of Hayden v. Portola Pharmaceuticals in U.S. District Court, in the Northern District of California, before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, plaintiffs sued under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 alleging that the company and its underwriters misrepresented its financial position ahead of a 2019 securities offering. [8] [9] In November 2022, Judge Chhabria entered an order granting preliminary approval of the proposed settlement of the case in the proposed settlement amount of $17.5 million. [10] [11] [12]
An anticoagulant, commonly known as a blood thinner, is a chemical substance that prevents or reduces the coagulation of blood, prolonging the clotting time. Some occur naturally in blood-eating animals, such as leeches and mosquitoes, which help keep the bite area unclotted long enough for the animal to obtain blood.
Rivaroxaban, sold under the brand name Xarelto among others, is an anticoagulant medication used to treat and prevent blood clots. Specifically it is used to treat deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary emboli and prevent blood clots in atrial fibrillation and following hip or knee surgery. It is taken by mouth.
Eculizumab, sold under the brand name Soliris among others, is a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody used to treat paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, generalized myasthenia gravis, and neuromyelitis optica. In people with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, it reduces both the destruction of red blood cells and need for blood transfusion, but does not appear to affect the risk of death. Eculizumab was the first medication approved for each of its uses, and its approval was granted based on small trials. It is given by intravenous infusion. It is a humanized monoclonal antibody functioning as a terminal complement inhibitor. It binds to the complement C5 protein and inhibits activation of the complement system, a part of the body's immune system. This binding prevents the breakdown of red blood cells in the bloodstream in people with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome.
PTC Therapeutics, Inc. is a US pharmaceutical company focused on the development of orally administered small molecule drugs and gene therapy which regulate gene expression by targeting post-transcriptional control (PTC) mechanisms in orphan diseases.
Direct factor Xa inhibitors (xabans) are anticoagulants, used to both treat and prevent blood clots in veins, and prevent stroke and embolism in people with atrial fibrillation (AF).
MorphoSys AG is a German biopharmaceutical company founded in 1992. The company is headquartered near Munich, Germany, and has a wholly owned subsidiary, MorphoSys US Inc., in Boston, Massachusetts, in the US. The company has various antibody, protein and peptide technologies that it uses to discover and develop both proprietary and partnered drug candidates. The company has more than 100 drugs in its wider pipeline that are being investigated for a variety of diseases. While many of these are being developed in partnership with pharma and biotech companies, MorphoSys also has a proprietary pipeline with a focus on cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Olaparib, sold under the brand name Lynparza, is a medication for the maintenance treatment of BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer in adults. It is a PARP inhibitor, inhibiting poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP), an enzyme involved in DNA repair. It acts against cancers in people with hereditary BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, which include some ovarian, breast, and prostate cancers.
Edoxaban, sold under the brand name Lixiana among others, is an anticoagulant medication and a direct factor Xa inhibitor. It is taken by mouth.
Betrixaban is an oral anticoagulant drug which acts as a direct factor Xa inhibitor. Betrixaban is FDA approved for venous thrombosis prevention in adults hospitalized for an acute illness who are at risk for thromboembolic complications. Compared to other directly acting oral anticoagulants betrixaban has relatively low renal excretion and is not metabolized by CYP3A4.
Elinogrel (INN, USAN) was an experimental antiplatelet drug acting as a P2Y12 inhibitor. Similarly to ticagrelor and in contrast to clopidogrel, elinogrel was a reversible inhibitor that acted fast and short (for about 12 hours), and it was not a prodrug but pharmacologically active itself. The substance was used in form of its potassium salt, intravenously for acute treatment and orally for long-term treatment. Development was terminated in 2012.
Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a subsidiary of AstraZeneca, is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts that specializes in orphan drugs to treat rare diseases.
Apixaban, sold under the brand name Eliquis, is an anticoagulant medication used to treat and prevent blood clots and to prevent stroke in people with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation through directly inhibiting factor Xa. It is used as an alternative to warfarin to prevent blood clots following hip or knee replacement and in those with a history of prior clots. and does not require monitoring by blood tests or dietary restrictions. It is taken by mouth.
Andexanet alfa, sold under the brand name Andexxa among others, is an antidote for the medications rivaroxaban and apixaban, when reversal of anticoagulation is needed due to uncontrolled bleeding. It has not been found to be useful for other factor Xa inhibitors. It is given by injection into a vein.
Ceritinib is a prescription-only drug used for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It was developed by Novartis and received FDA approval for use in April 2014.
Synageva BioPharma Corp. was a publicly listed biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts dedicated to discovering, developing and delivering medicines for patients with rare diseases and high unmet medical needs. The company had manufacturing and laboratory locations in Lexington and Holden, Massachusetts, Bogart and Athens Georgia, as well as offices in a variety of locations around the world.
Sebelipase alfa, sold under the brand name Kanuma, is a recombinant form of the enzyme lysosomal acid lipase (LAL) that is used as a medication for the treatment of lysosomal acid lipase deficiency (LAL-D). It is administered via intraveneous infusion. It was approved for medical use in the European Union and in the United States in 2015.
Four drugs from the class of direct Xa inhibitors are marketed worldwide. Rivaroxaban (Xarelto) was the first approved FXa inhibitor to become commercially available in Europe and Canada in 2008. The second one was apixaban (Eliquis), approved in Europe in 2011 and in the United States in 2012. The third one edoxaban was approved in Japan in 2011 and in Europe and the US in 2015. Betrixaban (Bevyxxa) was approved in the US in 2017.
Tisagenlecleucel, sold under the brand name Kymriah, is a CAR T cells medication for the treatment of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) which uses the body's own T cells to fight cancer.
Ravulizumab, sold under the brand name Ultomiris, is a humanized monoclonal antibody complement inhibitor medication designed for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome. It is designed to bind to and prevent the activation of Complement component 5 (C5).
BeiGene, Ltd. is a multinational oncology company. It specializes in the development of drugs for cancer treatment. Founded in 2010 by chief executive officer John V. Oyler and Xiaodong Wang, the company is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has offices in North America, Europe, South America, Asia and Australia. BeiGene has a large presence in the Chinese market. BeiGene has developed several pharmaceuticals, including tislelizumab, a checkpoint inhibitor, and zanubrutinib, a Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor. On 14 November, 2024 the company announced its intention to rebrand as BeOne Medicines.