Month: March 2016
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Regeneron, Bayer Collaborating on Eye Disorder Drug
24 March 2016. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and drug-maker Bayer AG are developing a combination of biologic drugs to treat the eye disorders wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. The agreement — the third such deal between the companies — is expected to bring Regeneron as much as $130 million if all milestones are met.…
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Propeller, Boehringer Partner on Inhaler Adherence Study
23 March 2016. The pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim is collaborating with a mobile health technology developer to track use of its medications for asthma and COPD administered with its inhaler. Financial aspects of the agreement between Propeller Health in Madison, Wisconsin, and Boehringer Ingelheim were not disclosed. Boehringer Ingelheim, headquartered in Germany, markets a number…
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New Biotech Begins Work on Enhanced Platinum Cancer Drugs
23 March 2016. A new biotechnology company began work today on developing improved platinum-based treatments for solid tumor cancers. The company, Placon Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a spin-off enterprise from Tarveda Therapeutics, a developer of biologic cancer drugs. Placon Therapeutics focuses on new treatments for cancer using platinum as a cancer-killing agent that works…
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Quick Tests for Mosquito-Borne Viruses Being Developed
22 March 2016. A Canadian company is developing diagnostic tests that it says can detect in 1 minute antibodies in blood indicating the early-stage presence of Zika and other mosquito-borne viruses. The company bioLytical Laboratories in Richmond, British Columbia says its proof-of-concept studies show the feasibility of these quick, point-of-care tests to diagnose dengue and…
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Nanoparticles Shown to Target Tumors, Avoid Adjacent Cells
22 March 2016. A small-scale clinical trial shows cancer drugs formulated into nanoparticles accumulate in solid tumors in humans, while avoiding adjacent healthy tissue. The team from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena published its findings yesterday (21 March) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The CalTech team, led by chemical engineering…
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23andMe Creates Research Software for iPhone Apps
21 March 2016. The personal genetics company 23andMe wrote a software module for Apple’s ResearchKit platform that makes it possible to add genetics data to iPhone apps used in medical research. The module, says 23andMe, in Mountain View, California, also supports genetics data from other sources, with three research apps now using the software to…
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Merck Licensing Harvard Cancer Drug Molecules
21 March 2016. The pharmaceutical company Merck is licensing small molecule research discoveries from a Harvard University lab as potential treatments for leukemia. The agreement brings the university $20 million immediately, with further payments expected as Merck develops the discoveries into products. The deal gives Merck an exclusive license to research by biochemistry professor Matthew…
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Cancer Diagnostics Company Raises $12.3M in IPO
18 March 2016. VolitionRx, a developer of blood tests that screen for cancer and other disorders, is raising some $12.3 million in its initial public stock offering. The Namur, Belgium company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VNRX, issued about 3.8 million shares of common stock priced at $3.25. VolitionRx designs…
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Implant Developed to Deliver Alzheimer’s Immunotherapy
18 March 2016. A neuroscience team from Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, or EPFL, in Switzerland designed and implanted a capsule that in lab mice generates antibodies to reduce amyloid beta plaque accumulations in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers from the lab of Patrick Aebischer, also EPFL’s president, published its findings in the…
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Allied-Bristol Licenses NYU Research, Starts New Company
17 March 2016. Allied-Bristol Life Sciences, a joint venture of Allied Minds and Bristol-Myers Squibb, is licensing research from New York University on signaling pathways affecting growth of tumors, for a new company begun under its tutelage. Financial aspects of the deal between Allied-Bristol and NYU were not disclosed. The new enterprise, known as iBeCa…