July 29th, 2010 by admin
Milestone payments are becoming an increasingly familiar aspect of many biotech deals, as buyers try to mitigate the risks inherent with big purchases. Take Celgene’s $2.9 billion buyout of Abraxis; the biotech giant set aside $650 million in milestone payments if Abraxis’ key drug Abraxane hit certain goals. “These structures are a great way for [...]
July 28th, 2010 by admin
A Utah doctor is being sent to jail for his connection to an illegal online pharmacy that sold more than eight million weight-loss pills manufactured in Mexico. Dr James A Brinton was sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute phentermine and conspiracy to commit international money [...]
July 23rd, 2010 by admin
A group of scientists have demonstrated that specially engineered stem cells could be used to fights off AIDS, successfully testing the approach in mice engineered to develop immune systems similar to humans. The investigators started with the observation that a small group of people who are virtually immune to HIV have disabled CCR5 receptors on [...]
July 20th, 2010 by admin
In the quest for a cancer vaccine, Merck KGaA is again stepping into the ring. Vaximm Holding AG, the company’s joint venture with a Switzerland’s BB Biotech Ventures III, will start testing a therapeutic cancer vaccine in patients next year. The vaccine, VXM01, harnesses the body’s immune system to fight cancer by using T-cells to close off [...]
July 16th, 2010 by admin
Over the next five years, the market for biosimilars will swell to $10 billion, but only a handful of players with deep pockets and world-class R&D facilities will be able to play. And that means that most small- and medium-size drug developers will never have a chance of leaping into the new market for follow-on [...]
July 14th, 2010 by admin
Chang Lu and his chemical engineering research group at Virginia Tech have discovered how to “greatly enhance” the delivery of DNA payloads into cells. The description of their work will be featured on the cover of Lab on a Chip, the premier journal for researchers in microfluidics. Lu’s ultimate goal is to apply this technique [...]
July 9th, 2010 by admin
For someone with a severe, incurable lung disorder such as cystic fibrosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung transplant may be the only chance for survival. Unfortunately, it’s often not a very good chance. Matching donor lungs are rare, and many would-be recipients die waiting for the transplants that could save their lives.
July 8th, 2010 by admin
Building on research work undertaken in Germany, City of Hope investigators near LA have used modified stem cells loaded with gene sequences to fight off HIV. And the scientists in the study say that the work points to a possible cure for the dread virus, which has killed millions of people around the world.
July 6th, 2010 by admin
A new, $50 million biomedical research lab has been completed at George Mason University near Washington D.C. and is being ramped up to study new therapies for infectious diseases–including a range of potential bioterror weapons. Once the 52,000-square-foot facility is licensed and fully operational in a few months, 50 people will be on site to [...]
July 5th, 2010 by admin
While the overall economy may be flagging, Maryland says that its biotech industry is booming. And the governor wants to keep the momentum going with a few new industry incentives. Gov. Martin O’Malley told reporters that the biotech industry added more than a thousand jobs in the last three months; that’s 10 percent of the [...]