Tag: biotechnology
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Cloud Pharma, Univ of Florida Partner on Cancer Drug Design
17 March 2017. Cloud Pharmaceuticals, a company designing drug compounds with computer-based tools, and University of Florida’s medical school are collaborating on the design of new drugs limiting an enzyme implicated in the proliferation of cancer cells. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. The agreement calls for the university’s Department of Medicine and…
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Stem Cells Shown to Stop Decline for Some ALS Patients
13 March 2015. An intermediate-stage clinical trial of a stem cell therapy to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, shows some patients receiving the treatments nearly stopped the decline or improved their muscle functions. Neuralstem Inc., a biotechnology company in Germantown, Maryland sponsoring the study, reported summary results yesterday. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s…
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Immunotherapy Biotech Raising $45 Million in IPO
12 March 2015. Genocea Biosciences Inc., a biotechnology company developing immunotherapies to treat genital herpes and other diseases, is raising $45 million in its initial public offering of stock. The Cambridge, Massachusetts enterprise is issuing 5,454,545 shares priced at $8.25. The company trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol GNCA. As of 12:00 pm…
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FDA Approves Antibody for Childhood Nerve Cell Cancer
10 March 2015. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved today dinutuximab, an engineered antibody to treat neuroblastoma, a rare cancer affecting nerve cells in young children. Dinutuximab is developed by United Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in Silver Spring, Maryland and marketed under the brand name Unituxin. Neuroblastoma is a cancer that develops from immature…
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MedImmune, Joslin Partner on Diabetes Research
10 March 2015. Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and MedImmune, the biotechnology subsidiary of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, are collaborating on research to identify new drugs to treat diabetes. While the partnership calls for MedImmune to fund research conducted at Joslin, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Diabetes is a chronic condition where the pancreas…
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Gates Invests, Supports R&D in RNA Vaccine Maker
6 March 2015. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is making an equity investment and providing a grant to support research at CureVac GmbH, a developer of vaccines and therapies with RNA molecules. The foundation is investing €46 million ($52 million) in CureVac, in Tübingen, Germany, but the amount of the grant supporting research in…
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Trial Testing Stem Cell Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury
5 March 2015. A clinical trial testing a stem cell therapy for spinal cord injury is recruiting patients at an Atlanta rehabilitation center. The intermediate-stage trial, conducted by biotechnology company Asterias Biotherapeutics, aims to initially enroll 13 adults to test three dosage levels of neural stem cells designed to restore motor functions to spinal cord…
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Genome Editing Shown to Repair Sickle Cell Gene
2 March 2015. Geneticists at the biotechnology company Editas Medicine show how genome editing techniques could repair mutations in the gene that causes sickle cell disease. Cecilia Cotta-Ramusino, a researcher with Editas, presented her findings today at the Keystone Symposium for Genomic Instability and DNA Repair in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Sickle cell disease is a…
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Adult Stem Cell Quality Control Methods Devised
27 February 2015. A European research team developed a process for testing the safety and quality of adult stem cells before being used in gene therapy treatments on patients. The team led by stem cell scientist Yann Barrandon at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne published its findings today in the journal EMBO…
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Bristol-Myers Squibb Acquires Biotech Cancer Therapies
24 February 2015. Bristol-Myers Squibb is purchasing biotechnology company Flexus Biosciences Inc., gaining many of that company’s cancer therapies in a deal valued as much as $1.25 billion to Flexus’s shareholders. The deal allows Flexus Biosciences shareholders to spin-off a new enterprise to develop the remaining drug programs, including treatments for cancer. The acquisition gives…