Winner takes Alios

Antiviral developer Alios BioPharma Inc. raised strategic investments from three pharmas, but they all lost out to Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). With a $1.7 billion bid on Sept. 30, J&J netted a candidate in Phase II testing to treat respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and a pipeline including HCV therapies.

The venture arms of Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY), GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK) and Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) all invested in Alios' two rounds of funding, which totaled $73 million. An undisclosed crossover investor led the biotech's April series B round...