Tag: pharmaceuticals
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Small Business Grant Funds Preclinical Lupus Research
24 August 2015. A grant from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is funding preclinical research by a biotechnology company on stem cells as a therapy for a type of lupus. The $225,000 grant from NIAID, part of National Institutes of Health, is made to Ocata Therapeutics Inc. of Marlborough, Massachusetts under the institute’s…
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Antipsychotic Drug Savings Expected as Patents Expire
21 August 2015. Medicaid is expected to save nearly $3 billion by the year 2019 from patents expiring on leading branded antipsychotic drugs, and as generic forms of those drugs replace them. Researchers from University of Maryland medical school in Baltimore made those calculations in a paper published last month in the journal Psychiatric Services…
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Early Trial Results Targeting Cancer Mutations Promising
20 August 2015. A clinical trial testing the efficacy of a cancer drug to treat multiple types of cancer based on a common genomic mutation, showed a melanoma drug could treat at least a few other cancers. A team from the U.S. and Europe, led by researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New…
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Glucose Control Implant Bests Diabetes Drug in Trial
19 August 2015. A clinical trial shows an implanted system did a better job of lowering blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes, than an approved glucose control drug. Intarcia Therapeutics in Boston, developer of the system code-named ITCA 650, released top-line results of the late-stage trial testing the device against the drug…
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Cancer Precision Medicine Trial Underway
18 August 2015. A new clinical trial is enrolling participants that tests multiple types of therapies on a number of different cancers based on the genomic make-up of individual patients. The intermediate-stage trial is part of the National Cancer Institute’s Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice, or NCI-MATCH program. NCI-MATCH seeks to determine if tumors with…
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Antibodies to Treat Cancer Complication Licensed to Pharma
17 August 2015. Aveo Oncology, a developer of biopharmaceuticals for cancer and related diseases, is licensing its engineered antibody designed to treat cachexia, a complication of cancer and other disorders, to the pharmaceutical company Novartis. The agreement could bring Aveo as much as $326 million over the course of the collaboration. Cachexia is a metabolic…
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Challenge Seeks Interventions for Epilepsy
14 August 2015. In a new challenge on InnoCentive, the Epilepsy Foundation is seeking methods and interventions to reduce sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, or SUDEP. The competition has a purse of $30,000 and deadline for submissions of 13 October 2015. InnoCentive in Waltham, Massachusetts conducts open-innovation, crowdsourcing competitions for corporate and organization sponsors. Free…
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Genetic Test Found to Save Drug Expense, Boost Adherence
13 August 2015. A genetic test to guide the choice of drugs prescribed to patients with psychiatric disorders was found to reduce the cost of medications to those patients and improve adherence to the drugs prescribed, compared to patients who were not given the test. Results of the study evaluating the GeneSight test, made by…
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Blood Disease Biotech Gains $120 Million in IPO
12 August 2015. Global Blood Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing treatments for blood-related disorders, is raising $120 million in its initial public stock offering. The company, in South San Francisco, California and trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol GBT, issued 6 million shares priced at $20.00. Shares closed today trading at $43.50, more…
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Intrexon Acquires Oxitec, Partners on Genetic Disorder
10 August 2015. Intrexon Corp., a biotechnology company specializing in synthetic biology, is acquiring Oxitec Ltd., a designer of genetically modified insects to control the spread of disease-bearing and agricultural pests for $160 million. Intrexon is also partnering with Synthetic Biologics Inc. to develop therapies for phenylketonuria, a genetic metabolic disorder. Intrexon, in Gaithersburg, Maryland…