Category: Joint ventures/collaborations

  • Drug Makers Start Prostate Cancer Patient Registry

    17 June 2015. Two companies that developed a drug to treat prostate cancer, began enrolling individuals into a registry of people with prostate cancer to track their quality of care. Astellas U.S., a division of Astellas Pharma in Tokyo, and Medivation Inc., a biotechnology company in San Francisco, created the registry to better understand treatment…

  • Report Evaluates Industry-Academic Biotech Partner Roles

    16 June 2015. A report released today by Biotechnology Industry Organization, or Bio, indicates academic research labs are playing an increasingly key role in research and development of new therapies, but it also highlights areas where partnerships between academia and industry are still evolving. Bio released the report, Advancing Translational Research for Biomedical Innovation: Measuring…

  • Companies Form Fertility Treatment Technologies Alliance

    8 June 2015. An alliance of drug, genomic, and assisted fertility technology companies are collaborating on processes and standards that encourage more consistency in results from assisted reproductive treatment labs. Financial details of the Global Fertility Alliance joining Illumina, Merck, and Genea were not disclosed. The three companies aim to improve outcomes in fertility clinics…

  • GE, Institute to Design Digital Manufacturing Platform

    3 June 2015. Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute in Chicago is developing a technology platform to make it easier for manufacturing companies to share technical data with their customers and suppliers, adapting concepts proposed by General Electric, which was chosen to lead the project. The platform, known as digital manufacturing commons, is expected to…

  • Spin-Off Biotech Formed for Autoimmune Disorders

    2 June 2015. Drug maker Astellas Pharma Inc. in Tokyo and Anokion SA, a biotechnology company in Lausanne, Switzerland, are forming Kanyos Bio Inc., a  spin-off enterprise to develop therapy candidates for autoimmune diseases. The deal could bring Kanyos Bio, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as much as $760 million, as well as an equity investment…

  • Trial to Test Cancer Drugs Matched to Gene Mutations

    2 June 2015. A new clinical trial will test 20 cancer drugs and drug combinations targeted to specific genetic mutations, regardless of cancer type. The study, known as NCI-Match is a joint project of National Cancer Institute, an agency of National Institutes of Health, and the Ecog-Acrin Cancer Research Group, and announced yesterday at the…

  • Mini Gamma Camera Developed, Spin-Off Company Formed

    1 June 2015. Physicists and medical researchers at two universities in the U.K. designed a hand-held camera that performs gamma ray imaging, normally requiring a powerful room-sized device for diagnosing tumors and other medical functions. The team from Universities of Leicester and Nottingham also formed a spin-off company, Gamma Technologies Ltd., to take the device…

  • Health Data, Analytics Firms to Boost Cancer Trial Access

    29 May 2015. A health data company and genetic analytics firm are beginning a service that they say will make it easier for cancer patients to take part in clinical trials of new drugs. Financial details of the collaboration between Guardian Research Network in Spartanburg, South Carolina and Molecular Health in Cambridge, Massachusetts were not…

  • Genome Interpretation Database, Quality Effort Underway

    28 May 2015. A program to improve diagnostics and research based on genomic variations is underway that collects genetic data and implements standards for their interpretation. A description of the Clinical Genome Resource or ClinGen program appears in yesterday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. ClinGen is a collaborative effort of  public, academic,…

  • Alliance Building Platform Against Drug-Resistant Infections

    27 May 2015. A coalition of health care providers, academic labs, and a pharmaceutical company formed an organization to develop a common research platform for countering multi-drug aesistant infections. The group known as Share ID — short for sharing hospital data to advance research and enhance patient care in infectious diseases — is underwritten by specialty…