In what could be the biggest breakthrough in the treatment of one of the deadliest cancer types, researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Children’s Hospital Boston have unveiled an effective new treatment for treating melanoma skin cancer.
Continue reading ‘Arthritis Drug to Combat Melanoma Skin Cancer’
Zymes, a New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical company, has received a two-year $476,000 grant from the Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF), under the Therapeutics Development Initiative Fall 2010 Program, to evaluate the effectiveness of WS-CoQ10 in stopping the progressive loss of dopamine nerve cells in animal models of Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Continue reading ‘Zymes Receives Michael Fox Foundation Grant for PD Therapy Research’
MedTrust Online and Avantra Biosciences have entered into a partnership to involve clinicians in the earliest stages of molecular diagnostic assay development for Avantra Biosciences’ revolutionary QPDx multiplex immunoassay system.
Continue reading ‘MedTrust, Avantra Partner to Develop Biomarker Assays for Cancer’
Sustained high vaccination coverage is key to preventing deaths from measles. Despite the availability of a vaccine, measles remains an important killer of children worldwide, particularly in less-developed regions where vaccination coverage is limited. A team of researchers, led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Colorado, developed and successfully tested a dry powder, live-attenuated measles vaccine that can be inhaled. The novel vaccine was studied in rhesus macaques.
With two antiviral drug candidates in the clinic, Durham, NC-based Chimerix has raised $45 million in a Series F round of financing. New Leaf Venture Partners led the round. The firm was joined by new investors Pappas Ventures and Morningside Group and existing contributors Canaan Partners, Sanderling Ventures, Alta Partners, Asset Management Company and Frazier Healthcare Ventures.
Continue reading ‘Chimerix Funds Antiviral Drug Work with $45M’
A startling scientific breakthrough on Type 1 diabetes could help pave the way to a cure or perhaps significantly reduce the need for insulin therapy. A researcher at UT Southwestern, Dr. Roger Unger, reports in the February issue of Diabetes that by shutting down glucagon, a hormone that causes blood sugar to spike in patients with Type 1 diabetes, he was able to restore glucose tolerance to a normal level in mice. Even large doses of glucose failed to derail the therapeutic effect of the glucagon approach.
Continue reading ‘Diabetes Researcher May be ‘Close to a Cure’’
Calvert Labs is offering clients the same kind of 24/7 on-demand smartphone access to study information that’s available to the rest of the world for news and sports. It’s linked a project-tracking iPhone application with a near-real-time and on-demand filtered information source for preclinical researchers.
Continue reading ‘CRO’s iPhone App Gives On-demand Study Updates’
More drugmakers are seeing potential in the business of producing copycat versions of expensive biotechnology drugs as U.S. guidelines take shape. The topic was at the forefront of plans discussed by several executives at this week’s JP Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco. Kevin Sharer, chief executive officer at Amgen Inc, said the world’s largest maker of branded biotechnology drugs would consider entering the “biosimilars” space, particularly in emerging markets like Asia and South America.
Continue reading ‘Copying Biotech Medicine Attracts More Drugmakers’
Eight months after Merck jumped into the driver’s seat to take control of Ariad’s late-stage cancer program ridaforolimus, the biotech is reporting that one of its Phase III study turned in statistically significant results. And the news quickly spurred a 36 percent increase in the biotech’s share price.
Continue reading ‘Ariad Shares Soar after Cancer Drug Clears Late-stage Trial’
Big upfront fees are out. Milestones are in. Partnerships will stay hot. The IPO window will stay open, despite a lackluster record in 2010. And investor confidence will grow, helping public biotech companies outperform the general market.
Continue reading ‘Burrill Predicts Big Surge in Biotech Buyouts for 2011′
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