Tag: biotechnology
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Food Safety Test Systems Company Raises $60 Million in IPO
17 July 2014. Roka Bioscience Inc., a developer of molecular-level food safety tests in Warren, New Jersey, issued 5 million shares in its initial public offering (IPO) yesterday. The company priced the shares at $12.00, raising $60 million. Roka Bioscience will trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol ROKA. The company develops tests for…
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Immunocore, Lilly Collaborate on T-Cell Cancer Therapies
16 July 2014. Drug maker Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis and Immunocore Ltd., a biotechnology company in Oxford, U.K. are jointly discovering new cancer therapies based on T-cells in the body’s immune system. The deal will pay Immunocore $15 million for each new therapy identified, with additional payments of $10 million for each therapy…
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Geisinger, Indivumed Partner on Personalized Cancer Therapy
15 July 2014. Geisinger Health System that serves central and eastern Pennsylvania is partnering with Indivumed GmbH, a biotech company and biobank in Hamburg, Germany to provide individualized cancer diagnostics for Geisinger clients. Financial details of the deal first announced in May 2013, but formalized this week, were not disclosed. Indivumed maintains a biorepository of…
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Personal Leukemia Immunotherapy Given Breakthrough Status
7 July 2014. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated as a breakthrough a personalized immunotherapy developed by University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia that does not respond to other treatments or has relapsed. FDA assigns a breakthrough designation and accelerates review of drugs or biologic therapies that treat a serious…
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University Offers Tuberculosis Drug Technology for Licensing
2 July 2014. A new process for developing drugs for tuberculosis designed at ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is offered for licensing by the university to companies for commercialization. The technology that aims to overcome resistance to many current tuberculosis drugs is the result of research from the lab of Zurich pharmaceutical…
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Health Quality Agency: Vaccines Safe, Adverse Effects Rare
1 July 2014. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, issued a report today indicating a systematic review of published research shows that vaccines are safe and serious adverse reactions to vaccines are rare occurrences. The study, conducted by the Southern California Evidence-Based Practice…
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Early Trial Shows Neural Regrowth Effects on Depression
25 June 2014. An early-stage clinical trial by Neuralstem Inc. in Germantown, Maryland provides evidence its experimental drug to treat major depressive disorder is having a positive impact on patients’ brain activity and behavior. The company reported the findings yesterday at a meeting of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Vancouver, Canada, and last week…
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Early Trial Shows Pneumonia Vaccine Safety, Immune Response
23 June 2014. An early-stage clinical trial testing a vaccine by Genocea Biosciences Inc. to prevent pneumonia and related bacterial diseases shows the vaccine caused no serious side effects and induced more immune system cells to prevent these infections. The Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company says it plans to present the findings at a medical conference…
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U.K. Public-Private Partnership to Attack Dementia
20 June 2014. Medical Research Council, a science funding agency in the U.K., organized a consortium of academic and industry researchers to better detect, prevent, and treat dementia. The council and six industry partners plan to spend £16 million ($US 27.25 million) on the U.K. Dementias Research Platform that includes studies involving some 2 million…
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Fibrocell Science Licenses Stem Cell Technology from UCLA
17 June 2014. The biotechnology company Fibrocell Science Inc. in Exton, Pennsylvania is licensing stem cell discoveries from University of California in Los Angeles for personalized treatments of serious bone and connective tissue conditions. Financial aspects of the licensing deal were not disclosed. Fibrocell Science develops treatments for rare and serious conditions affecting bones, connective…