Roche to buy Spark Therapeutics for $4.8 billion
Shares of Philadelphia-based Spark were up more than 120 percent in premarket trading on the Nasdaq following the news.
Iconic Therapeutics is using Tissue Factor biology to create new treatment for age-related macular degeneration with retinal disease in addition to cancer.
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.