Category: Joint ventures/collaborations

  • Depression Drug Fails in First Phase 3 Trial

    A drug candidate designed to treat major depressive disorder has not met its success targets in the first round of phase 3 clinical trials. The drug, TC-5214 (S-mecamylamine), is made by global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Targacept Inc., biotechnology company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The clinical trial tested TC-5214 as a therapy for major depressive…

  • Researchers Give Robotics a Human Face

    Research engineers at Technical University of Munich (Technische Universitaet Muenchen, TUM) in Germany and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan have developed a way to give robots a human-like plastic head. Called Mask-bot, the technology may have a more immediate application as a tool to create avatars for participants in…

  • Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada Fund TB Diagnostic

    A device called an Electronic Nose that can detect tuberculosis in the breath of a patient, has received a $950,000 grant from Grand Challenges Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The funding will support further development and testing of the technology, developed by the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in…

  • Driver Health Monitors Developed for Passenger Cars

    A research team at the Technical University of Munich (Technische Universitaet Muenchen, TUM) in Germany and the BMW Group devised a sensor system that can monitor the driver’s state of health while driving. The scientific team led by TUM’s professor Tim Lueth published their findings in a recent issue of the technical journal ATZ Online…

  • National Lab, MIT Launch Materials Discovery Database

    Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a database to accelerate discovery and development of new materials in critical technologies. The Department of Energy database, part of an initiative called the Materials Project, will be available to scientists and engineers at universities, national laboratories, and private industry. Parts…

  • Sanford-Burnham to Join Pfizer Translational Network

    Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in San Diego has agreed to participate with Pfizer Inc. in the pharmaceutical company’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI), a consortium of academic labs and institutes working in translational research. Sanford-Burnham joins university medical centers and institutes in Massachusetts, New York, San Francisco and San Diego, California. Pfizer calls CTI an…

  • Roche, DexCom to Partner on Insulin Delivery Systems

    Roche Diagnostics, a division of the global pharmaceutical company, and DexCom Inc. in San Diego have agreed to develop an insulin delivery system for diabetics that combines the companies’ technologies. Roche also agreed to distribute DexCom’s glucose monitoring system for health care professionals. The two companies aim to integrate DexCom’s continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology…

  • Laser Technique Developed for Microscale Tissue Engineering

    A research team from Laser Zentrum Hannover (LZH) eV Institute in Hannover, Germany, and the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh has devised a technique to produce finely detailed scaffolds on which human cells can grow to replace lost or damaged…

  • NIH to Fund Diabetes/Cardiovascular Biomarker Collaboration

    Researchers at Arizona State University in Tempe will lead a team funded by National Institutes of Health to discover proteins or biomarkers that help predict cardiovascular disease and to assess new treatments for people with type 2 diabetes. The $5 million, four-year project will include scientists from the Phoenix VA Health Care System, Pfizer Inc.,…

  • U.S. Biotech Licenses Hong Kong University Flu Research

    Alios BioPharma in South San Francisco and University of Hong Kong agreed to a licensing agreement for the university’s research findings that target influenza viruses. The agreement, officially with the university’s technology transfer company, will be used to advance the company’s R&D and commercialization of medicines to treat influenza infection. The company also agreed to…