Category: Finance
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Business-Academic Coop to Fund Translational Research
25 January 2016. Three pharmaceutical companies and three universities in the U.K. are forming an independent consortium to support academic research leading to new therapies. The £40 million ($US 57 million) Apollo Therapeutics Fund will be financed by contributions from global pharmaceutical enterprises AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, and Johnson & Johnson, for work in research labs at…
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Ultrasound Healing Studied for Peripheral Nervous System
20 January 2016. A biomedical engineering lab is investigating ultrasound stimulation of the peripheral nervous system as a therapeutic technique for human organs. The research at Columbia University in New York is funded by a four-year $3.33 million grant from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The peripheral nervous system is the array of neural…
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Computer Game Being Designed to Combat Domestic Violence
15 January 2016. Social scientists and designers in the U.K. are developing a computer game to teach empathy and non-violence in family relationships. The game, for use in the Caribbean and the U.K., is funded by a €400,000 ($US 434,000) grant from the European Commission. The funding, from the EU’s delegation to the Eastern Caribbean…
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Gates Funding RNA Treatment for HIV Infection
12 January 2016. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is backing a biotechnology company’s early development of antibodies to treat human immunodeficiency virus or HIV based on RNA, nucleic acids expressed by a person’s genetic code. The foundation is supporting the work of Moderna Therapeutics, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with an initial $20 million grant, and…
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Juno Acquires Biotech, Licenses Cell Sequencing Tech
11 January 2016. Juno Therapeutics is gaining single-cell sequencing technology for cancer immunotherapies through the buy-out of biotechnology company AbVitro Inc., and licensing part of that technology to pharmaceutical company Celgene Corp. The AbVitro acquisition is valued at about $125 million, while financial details of the licensing deal with Celgene are not disclosed. Juno Therapeutics,…
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Biotechs to Develop Antibody Therapies, Explore Merger
8 January 2016. Two biotechnology companies in Vancouver agreed to collaborate on developing antibody treatments for cancer, with an option to merge their enterprises later on. The deal calls for Zymeworks Inc. to make an undisclosed equity investment in Kairos Therapeutics Inc. Zymeworks is also receiving $US 61.5 million in its first venture funding round.…
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Rodin, Biogen Partner on Neurological Epigenetics
6 January 2016. The biotechnology company Rodin Therapeutics is collaborating with Biogen, another biotech enterprise, in developing treatments based on epigenetics for neurological disorders. The agreement includes a $17.3 million equity investment in Rodin by Biogen and venture investor Atlas Venture, with an option for Biogen to acquire Rodin that provides further payments valued as…
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Clinical Trials to Test Artificial Pancreas
4 January 2016. Two new clinical trials are planned to test a smartphone-based closed-loop artificial pancreas system for people with type 1 diabetes. The system is developed by teams at University of Virginia in Charlottesville and Harvard University, and licensed for commercial development by TypeZero LLC, also in Charlottesville. The trials are funded by a…
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€50,000 Challenge Seeks New Gas Technologies
28 December 2015. A challenge competition from industrial gas developer Air Liquide asks researchers to devise new solutions for three sustainable applications of gas molecules. Each of the three challenges awards a cash prize of €50,000 ($US 55,000), and an opportunity to earn another €500,000 in funding to develop the proposed solution. The competitions begin receiving entries on 6 January 2016,…
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Biotech, Bayer Partner on Gene-Editing Treatments
21 December 2015. CRISPR Therapeutics and the drug company Bayer AG are forming a joint venture to develop gene-editing therapies for three types of genetic diseases, and later for other human and agricultural applications. The deal calls for Bayer AG, in Leverkusen, Germany, to invest at least $300 million in the joint venture and take…