Category: Intellectual property
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AstraZeneca Licenses Kidney Disease Complications Treatment
AstraZeneca, a global pharmaceutical company based in the U.K., agreed to license a compound to treat complications of chronic and end-stage kidney disease from Ardelyx in Fremont, California. The deal that provides AstraZeneca with an exclusive worldwide license has a value of at least $272.5 million. Ardelyx develops small molecule drugs that restrict absorption in…
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GE Expands Geron Corp. Stem Cell Licensing Deal
GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company, is expanding its licensing agreement with biopharmaceutical company Geron Corp. in Menlo Park, California for stem cell tests used in drug discovery. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. In 2009, Geron agreed to license its human embryonic stem cells technology to GE Healthcare for the…
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Levitation Technique Devised to Create More Soluble Drugs
Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy in Illinois, developed techniques making it more feasible to create drugs that are more soluble, and thus more effective in lower doses. X-ray physicist Chris Benmore led the study that uses levitation to suspend the solution in air while it evaporates, leaving…
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Drug Discovery Company Lands Venture Funds, Licensing Deal
Vascular Pharmaceuticals Inc., a drug discovery company in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, secured $16 million in series A funds, the first round of financing after start-up. The company, a developer of drugs to treat complications of diabetes, also signed a licensing agreement for its lead compound with Janssen Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson.…
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Nanotech Process Devised for Graphene Semiconductors
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim developed a process to make semiconductors by growing nanoscale wires on a graphene substrate. Helge Weman (pictured left), a professor of electronics, led the research team that published its findings last month in the journal Nano Letters; paid subscription required. Weman also co-founded a…
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USPTO Issues Inventor Verification Rules Under First-to-File
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued new procedures today to ensure the first person to file a patent application is actually the true inventor. The new rules are part of USPTO’s implementation of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), and are scheduled to take effect on 16 March 2013. The AIA shifts the U.S.…
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New Materials Developed with Vast Surface Areas
Materials scientists and engineers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and University of Surrey in the U.K. created two new synthetic materials with the largest reported amounts of internal surface area. The researchers published their findings online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (paid subscription required). The two new materials, known as NU-109…
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National Lab Licenses Neutron Detector for Life Sciences
Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee licensed one of its technologies for detecting neutrons to PartTec Ltd. in Bloomington, Indiana that develops neutron detectors and related systems. Financial aspects of the agreement were not disclosed. The licensed technology — called the Neutron-Sensitive Anger Camera — allows researchers to study a range of crystalline structures for…
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Blood Test Technology Devised with Lab Chip, Smartphone App
Engineering faculty and students at University of Rhode Island in Kingston developed a hand-held blood testing technology that combines a lab-on-a-chip device with a smartphone app. The university says several patents for been filed for the system invented by mechanical engineering professor Mohammad Faghri (pictured right) and colleagues. The device captures a drop of blood…
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Early-Stage Biomedical Accelerator Gains $21M Initial Funding
BioMotiv, a Cleveland company supporting early-stage medical research for commercial development into therapies, secured $21 million in its first financing round. The funds are being provided by BioMotiv’s founding investors, University Hospitals health care system in northeast Ohio and the Harrington Family of Hudson, Ohio, a supporter of translational biomedical research. The company provides financing…