Tag: pharmaceuticals
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Trial Shows Immunotherapy Reduces Rheumatoid Arthritis
4 June 2015. A clinical trial of an immune system therapy shows one treatment reduces levels of harmful immune activity and joint inflammation in people with rheumatoid arthritis. The early-stage trial led by researchers at University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia is reported yesterday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, where…
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Antibiotic Developer Adds $9.2 Million in Early Funds
3 June 2015. Auspherix Limited, a start-up developer of new antibiotic drugs, raised £6 million ($US 9.2 million) in early-stage venture financing. Funding for the two year-old enterprise, located in a pharmaceutical and biotechnology incubator at Stevenage, U.K., was led by technology commercialization company Imperial Innovations plc, with earlier investor Australia’s Medical Research Commercialisation Fund.…
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Spin-Off Biotech Formed for Autoimmune Disorders
2 June 2015. Drug maker Astellas Pharma Inc. in Tokyo and Anokion SA, a biotechnology company in Lausanne, Switzerland, are forming Kanyos Bio Inc., a spin-off enterprise to develop therapy candidates for autoimmune diseases. The deal could bring Kanyos Bio, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as much as $760 million, as well as an equity investment…
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Trial to Test Cancer Drugs Matched to Gene Mutations
2 June 2015. A new clinical trial will test 20 cancer drugs and drug combinations targeted to specific genetic mutations, regardless of cancer type. The study, known as NCI-Match is a joint project of National Cancer Institute, an agency of National Institutes of Health, and the Ecog-Acrin Cancer Research Group, and announced yesterday at the…
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Antibody Improves Lung Cancer Survival Time in Trial
1 June 2015. A late-stage clinical trial shows an engineered antibody that harnesses the immune system increases the survival time of people with a common form of lung cancer compared to standard chemotherapy. The study of the drug nivolumab, marketed as Opdivo by Bristol-Myers Squibb, was reported yesterday at the annual meeting of American Society…
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Alliance Building Platform Against Drug-Resistant Infections
27 May 2015. A coalition of health care providers, academic labs, and a pharmaceutical company formed an organization to develop a common research platform for countering multi-drug aesistant infections. The group known as Share ID — short for sharing hospital data to advance research and enhance patient care in infectious diseases — is underwritten by specialty…
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Study IDs Advanced Prostate Cancer Genome Mutations
22 May 2015. An analysis of biopsy samples from men with prostate cancer that spread to other parts of their bodies identifies genomic anomalies found in nearly 90 percent in men with the condition, for which treatments may be available. Findings from the team at eight institutions in the U.S. and U.K. appear today in…
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Orphan Status Granted Eye Cancer Treatment
21 May 2015. Food and Drug Administration designated an experimental treatment for uveal melanoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer in the eye, as an orphan drug that qualifies for incentives to expedite its development. Aura Biosciences also revealed results of preclinical tests showing the ability of its lead biologic therapy code-named AU-011 to…
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FDA Approves Four-Times-Per-Year Schizophrenia Drug
19 May 2015. Food and Drug Administration approved for sale in the U.S. a drug for controlling schizophrenia symptoms that individuals need to take only four times per year. Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson & Johnson, markets the three-month version of the drug paliperidone palmitate under the brand name Invega Trinza. Schizophrenia is a…
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AstraZeneca Building New Biologics Plant
18 May 2015. The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca plans to build a new facility in Södertälje, Sweden to manufacture biologic medications. The $285 million plant is expected to employ from 150 to 250 workers when it goes into operation in 2019. Södertälje is the site of AstraZeneca’s largest factory for making tablets and capsules, as well…