Tag: pharmaceuticals
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Spin-Off Developing Gene Therapies for Blood Disorders
11 December 2015. A new spin-off company from University College London in the U.K. is developing gene therapies to treat hemophilia and related diseases. The company, Freeline Therapeutics, is raising £25 million ($US 38 million) in its first venture funding round. Freeline Therapeutics is founded and commercializing research by UCL hematology professor Amit Nathwani, who…
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Biotech to Explore Gut-Brain Connections, Raises $44M
10 December 2015. A new biotechnology start-up plans to derive medical and consumer products from interactions between the human gut and brain. Kallyope Inc. in New York City is founded by biomedical researchers at Columbia University and raising $44 million its first venture funding round. Kallyope is designing a technology that harnesses communication pathways between…
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Nanotech Multi-Drug Delivery Technique Devised for Cancer
10 December 2015. A pharmacy lab at Oregon State University developed a technique for combining three drugs into nanoscale particles that treat melanoma spreading to lymph nodes in lab animals. The team led by Oregon State pharmacy professor Adam Alani published its proof-of-concept findings last month in Journal of Controlled Release (paid subscription required). Alani’s…
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High Blood Cancer Response Rates Found for Cell Therapies
8 December 2015. Two clinical trials of personalized immune cells to treat blood-related cancers — acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in adults — showed high rates of response and remission. Results of the two trials, conducted by University of Pennsylvania medical school, were reported earlier this week at a meeting of American…
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Trial Underway Testing Flesh-Eating Bacteria Drug
7 December 2015. A late-stage clinical trial began enrolling patients to test a new treatment for rare, but dangerous bacterial infections that destroy soft tissue and muscle. The trial is testing AB103, a biologic therapy developed by the biotechnology company Atox Bio in Ness Ziona, Israel. AB103 is designed to treat necrotizing soft tissue infections,…
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Study: Records Database Offers Clinical Trial Savings
3 December 2015. A cost-benefit analysis shows pharmaceutical companies could reap sizable savings in their planning and conduct of clinical trials if they made regular use of a European electronic health records database. The study, led by Data Mining Institute in Geneva, Switzerland with co-authors from several pharmaceutical companies, appears in the January 2016 issue…
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Antibodies Reduce Whooping Cough Severity, Infections
3 December 2015. Two engineered antibodies were shown in tests with lab animals to reduce the severity of whooping cough symptoms and white blood cell counts indicating infection. The team from the protein engineering lab of Jennifer Maynard at University of Texas in Austin and Synthetic Biologics, a biotechnology company in Rockville, Maryland, published its…
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Chlamydia Vaccine Shown Working in Lab Tests
2 December 2015. An experimental vaccine to prevent chlamydia was shown in tests with lab mice to prevent pelvic inflammation and clear bacteria more than mice not receiving the vaccine. The vaccine, given through the nose, is made by NanoBio Corp., a biopharmaceutical company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted disease that…
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CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing Made More Accurate
1 December 2015. Medical and engineering researchers enhanced emerging CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing techniques, reducing erroneous off-target edits with an engineered enzyme. The team from the Broad Institute, a medical research center at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, published its findings today online in Science…
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FDA Approves Antibody Treatment for Lung Cancer
25 November 2015. U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved necitumumab, an engineered antibody to treat squamous non-small cell lung cancer that spreads to other parts of the body. Necitumumab is marketed under the brand name Portrazza by Eli Lilly and Company. Worldwide, lung cancer causes some 1.6 million deaths, according to World Health Organization. Non-small cell lung…