Month: December 2015

  • Airway-on-Chip Model Simulates Asthma, COPD

    22 December 2015. A biomedical engineering lab at Harvard University developed a small chip device that acts as a model of human airways to study biological processes and test drugs for diseases such as COPD and asthma. A team from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering describe the device in yesterday’s issue of the…

  • 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…

  • Lilly Licensing Biotech’s Drug Injection Technology

    21 December 2015. Eli Lilly and Company is licensing a technology from Halozyme Therapeutics that makes it possible to inject biologic drugs under the skin rather than with intravenous infusions. The deal could bring Halozyme Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in San Diego, as much as $825 million. Halozyme develops synthetic enzymes, with a technology platform, called Enhanze…

  • Challenge Seeks Treatments to Stop Asthma Allergic Advance

    18 December 2015. A new challenge on InnoCentive is looking for treatment strategies to halt the progression of allergic reactions leading to development of asthma. The competition has a total purse of $20,000 and a deadline for submissions of 14 February 2016. The sponsor of the challenge, pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, is also seeking research…

  • Trial Shows Clot Prevention Drug Safe, Reversible

    18 December 2015. An early-stage clinical trial of an experimental drug to prevent blood clots during heart surgery shows the drug prevents platelet accumulation, while still safe and temporary to prevent excess bleeding. The study by a team at Tufts University Medical Center in Boston and Sinai Hospital of Baltimore appears in yesterday’s issue of…

  • Detailed Brain Activity Imaging Being Developed

    17 December 2015. An engineering group at University of Arizona is developing a new technology that promises to provide better images of electrical activity in the brain. The project, led by Arizona biomedical engineering professor Russell Witte, is funded by a three-year, $1.15 million grant from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of…

  • Galapagos Licensing Inflammation Drug in $2.1B Deal

    17 December 2015. A biotechnology company is licensing its small molecule drug for treating inflammatory disorders to the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences in a deal valued at nearly $2.1 billion. The agreement includes Gilead Sciences taking an ownership stake in Galapagos NV, based in Mechelin, Belgium. The deal involves the small-molecule, or low molecular weight,…

  • Synthetic Peptide Protects Neurons Damaged by Parkinson’s

    16 December 2015. A study by a start-up biotechnology company and university medical center shows an engineered peptide can protect brain cells in lab mice from damage by toxins like those causing Parkinson’s disease. The findings by a team from Longevity Biotech in Philadelphia and University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha are published in…

  • Nanofibers, Stem Cells Studied for Rotator Cuff Repair

    16 December 2015. An engineering lab at Columbia University is researching a new regenerative process that better integrates human tendon and bone tissue to repair rotator cuff injuries. The team led by biomedical engineering professor Helen Lu is funded by $1.1 million grant from Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs in the U.S. Department of Defense.…

  • Trial Underway Testing Opioid Dependency Treatments

    15 December 2015. A late-stage clinical trial testing weekly and monthly treatments of injected buprenorphine for opioid drug dependence began enrolling patients. The trial is testing the drug code-named CAM2038 developed by the pharmaceutical company Camurus AB in Lund, Sweden, and licensed to Braeburn Pharmaceuticals in Princeton, New Jersey that offers treatments for neurological conditions.…