Tag: pharmaceuticals
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Ultrasound-Triggered Hydrogel Shown to Deliver Cancer Drug
24 June 2014. Bioengineers at Harvard University developed a technique with hydrogel and ultrasound that makes it possible to trigger short-term on-demand boosts of chemotherapy drugs. The team led by David Mooney of Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering published its findings online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paid…
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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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Foundation, Biopharm Partner on RNA-Interference Therapy
19 June 2014. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Alpha-1 Project in Miami are collaborating on advancing Alnylam’s therapy to treat alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a rare genetic condition responsible for liver disorders and a lung disease similar to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD. Alpha-1 Project is the for-profit venture division of the…
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Portfolio Model Proposed for Funding Alzheimer’s Research
18 June 2014. Financial and biomedical researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California in Santa Barbara, and the biotechnology company Genentech outlined a different approach to funding research on Alzheimer’s disease that supports multiple simultaneous studies addressing various drug targets. The team led by MIT finance professor Andrew Lo published its findings today…
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FDA Issues Draft Industry Guidance on Social Media
18 June 2014. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued draft guidance for medical products companies on their use of social media to communicate with patients. The agency announced yesterday the documents’ availability for comment in a blog post authored by Thomas Abrams, director of FDA’s prescription drug information office. Abrams says the documents —…
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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…
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FDA Grants Experimental Leukemia Drug Orphan Status
16 June 2014. Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated its therapy for acute myelogenous leukemia an orphan drug, qualifying it for tax incentives and other benefits. The orphan drug status comes at the same time of new findings reported from an early clinical trial of the drug,…
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Trial Shows Single-Dose Antibiotic Effective with MRSA
5 June 2014. Researchers at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and the Medicines Company in Parsippany, New Jersey show in a late-stage clinical trial that a single dose of the antibiotic oritavancin works as well in treating acute bacterial skin infections, including those from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, as the current standard of care…
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Clinical-Stage Biotech Lands $15M in Early Venture Funding
4 June 2014. Trevi Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company in New Haven, Connecticut developing therapies for chronic itching conditions, secured $15 million in its second venture financing round. The funding, the first installment in a projected $25 million round, was led by current investor TPG Biotech and includes current angel investors in the company. Trevi…