Tag: Asia
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Lilly Acquiring Treatment for Autoimmune Disorders
19 March 2015. The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company is acquiring from Hanmi Pharmaceutical, an experimental drug that blocks the actions of an enzyme associated with rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. The deal can pay Hanmi, in Seoul, Korea, as much as $690 million. Autoimmune disorders are diseases where the body’s immune system…
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XPrize Awards $5.25M for Lunar Technologies
26 January 2015. A competition to develop new technologies for landing and robotic exploration of the moon awarded $5.25 million in 9 prizes to 5 private companies, as part of the Google Lunar XPrize challenge. The companies — from the U.S., Germany, Japan, and India — received the prizes for their design and development of…
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Early Trial Underway Testing Brain Cancer Drug
24 December 2014. Kinex Pharmaceuticals, a developer of cancer therapies, began an early-stage clinical trial of an experimental treatment for tumors of support cells in the brain. The Buffalo, New York biotechnology company says the first patient received the drug code-named KX2-361 in the trial taking place at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, also in Buffalo,…
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Takada Pharma, GE Healthcare to Partner on Liver Disease
11 November 2014. Takada Pharmaceutical Company and GE Healthcare are collaborating on research into scarring of liver tissue that happens when damage occurs, often from fat building up in the liver, an increasingly common condition. Financial terms of the partnership, announced today at a meeting of American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases in Boston,…
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Simple 3-D Graphene Construction Process Devised
17 October 2014. Materials scientists at Kyoto University in Japan developed a new process that simplifies the building of three-dimension structures with graphene, a light, strong, conductive material with many industrial and commercial applications. Franklin Kim and Jianli Zou from Kyoto’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences published their findings yesterday in the journal Nature Communications…
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Astellas, Harvard Partner on Retinitis Pigmentosa Targets
14 October 2014. Astellas Pharma Inc. in Tokyo is collaborating with a genetics and ophthalmology lab at Harvard University to discover more about the onset of the eye disease retinitis pigmentosa and identify therapy targets. Financial details of the three-year deal with Harvard were not disclosed. Retinitis pigmentosa is a family of inherited eye disorders…
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Investment Fund Launches to Support Stem Cell Ventures
29 September 2014. ReproCell Inc., a developer of stem cell lines for research and therapies in Yokohama, Japan, is starting an investment fund that aims to back new biotechnology companies bringing stem cell research to market. The fund, called Cell Innovation Partners, begins with ¥800 million ($US 7.3 million) in capital, provided by Shinsei Corporate…
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University Starts Computer Science/Brain Research Consortium
26 August 2014. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh organized an international consortium of researchers to apply computer science techniques to the study of brain research and behavior. The collaboration, known as BrainHub, includes researchers from nearby University of Pittsburgh, as well as Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and…
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Trial Shows Drug Not Extending Breast Cancer Survival Time
25 July 2014. A late-stage clinical trial of the cancer drug sorafenib shows the drug, combined with the chemotherapy drug capecitabine, does not extend the amount of progression-free survival time of advanced breast cancer patients, compared to capecitabine alone. Sorafenib, marketed under the brand name Nexavar, is made by Onyx Pharmaceuticals in South San Francisco,…
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Dengue Vaccine Shown to Cut Infections, Hospitalizations
11 July 2014. A large-scale clinical trial of a vaccine by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi shows the vaccine prevents symptomatic dengue cases by more than half, with severe forms and hospitalizations from the disease reduced even further. Findings from the study, conducted among more than 10,000 children in five Asian countries, are reported online today…