Science and Enterprise

Tag: biotechnology

  • AstraZeneca Consolidates Research in U.K. and U.S.

    The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will consolidate its research operations at three main hubs in its U.K. home base, as well as the U.S. and continental Europe. The four-year plan, which includes moving its corporate headquarters, is expected to cost the company $1.4 billion and result in a reduction of some 1,600 jobs, mainly in the…

  • Grant to Fund Glucose-Sensitive Insulin Development

    Case Western Reserve University’s medical school in Cleveland received a grant of almost $1 million for research to develop a fast-acting form of insulin that can respond to an individual’s glucose levels. The three-year grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust will fund the work of medical professor Michael Weiss, who…

  • Merck, Luminex Partner on Alzheimer’s Screening Device

    The pharmaceutical company Merck & Co and diagnostics developer Luminex Corp. in Austin, Texas will develop a device to screen patients for tests of Merck’s experimental drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Financial terms and timetable of the deal were not disclosed. Merck is researching a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, code-named MK-8931, that inhibits an…

  • Research on Insects Leads to Forestry Biochemical Start-Up

    Biochemical researchers at University of Nevada in Reno started a company making compounds to control forest pests, based on their research in insect enzymes. Rubi Figueroa-Teran and Claus Tittiger, in Reno’s College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, started the company EscaZyme Biochemicals and were invited to join National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) to get the…

  • Merck, Samsung to Collaborate on Biosimilars

    The pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. in New Jersey and Samsung Bioepis Co. in Seoul, South Korea agreed on a deal for licensing and taking to market non-branded biologic therapies called biosimilars. While the companies released an outline of the financial arrangements, the dollar amount of the agreement was not disclosed. Biosimilars are treatments and…

  • Biotechs to Partner on Cancer Therapy, Drug Production

    The biotechnology companies iBio Inc. in Newark, Delaware and Caliber Biotherapeutics in Bryan, Texas agreed to combine their plant-based genomic drug discovery and development technologies to produce new therapeutics, beginning with a cancer drug. Financial aspects of the deal were not disclosed. iBio’s platform, called iBio Launch, uses plant biology to harness gene expression for…

  • Implant Drug Delivery Company Lands $9.5M Venture Funds

    PolyActiva in Melbourne, Australia, a developer of a nanoscale drug delivery technology for medical implants, raised $AU 9.2 million ($US 9.5 million) in series B venture funds, the second financing round after initial start-up. Investors include the Australian venture funds Medical Research Commercialisation Fund, Brandon Biosciences Fund 1, and Yuuwa Capital, as well as a…

  • Roche, Biotech to Partner on Growth Hormone Disorders

    The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche will license a compound developed by biotechnology company Chiasma Inc., based in New York and Jerusalem, to treat the hormonal disease acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumors. The deal has a total potential value to Chiasma of $595 million. Chiasma develops drugs for oral administration previously available in injection form. The company’s…

  • Janssen R&D Opens Lab Space to Individual Entrepreneurs

    Janssen Labs at San Diego, part of Janssen Research and Development and the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, is expanding its open laboratory facilities to individual life science entrepreneurs to conduct early stage research. The facility, open for a year, is already home to 18 start-up companies in the life sciences. Janssen Labs is housed…

  • Modeling, Biotechnology Boost Antibiotic Impact on Pathogens

    Biomedical engineers at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering combined computer modeling with biotechnology techniques to weaken resistance of E. coli cells to antibiotics. The team led by Jim Collins, with colleagues from Boston University, published its findings today online in the journal Nature Biotechnology, and filed a U.S. patent for the technology.…