Tag: pharmaceuticals
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FDA Approves Intermediate ALS Stem Cell Clinical Trial
28 April 2014. BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, in New York and Israel, says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its beginning an intermediate stage clinical trial of a stem cell-based therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The trial will test for safety and tolerability of the company’s treatments…
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Cancer Immunotherapy Start-Up Completes $176M Funding Round
25 April 2014. Juno Therapeutics, a biotechnology start-up company in Seattle, completed its first round of venture financing, raising $176 million from private investors and not-for-profit research institutes. The company started in December 2013 with a stake of $120 million, but announced in January 2014 it planned to expand its financing beyond an original target…
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Genome Editing Start-Up Secures $25 Million in First Round
24 April 2014. Biopharmaceutical start-up company CRISPR Therapeutics in Basel, Switzerland raised $25 million in its first funding round. The company develops engineered gene therapies with a technology developed by one of its scientific founders, and is backed in this round by Versant Ventures, a venture capital company in Menlo Park, California. CRISPR Therapeutics’ technology…
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Electro-Gene Therapy with Cochlear Implant Boosts Hearing
24 April 2014. Researchers at University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia delivered genetic material with electric impulses into cochlear implants that improves the quality of hearing to nearly normal in deaf lab animals. The team led by UNSW’s Gary Housley published its findings in today’s issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine (paid…
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Most Americans Favor Contraceptives Required in Health Plans
22 April 2014. A nationwide survey shows about 7 in 10 Americans support birth control medications being required in health insurance plans. The survey, conducted in November 2013 by a team at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is reported today online in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Affordable Care Act includes…
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Early Trial Shows Immunotherapy Evidence With Some Tumors
16 April 2014. A clinical trial of a cancer vaccine developed by biopharmaceutical company Celldex Therapeutics Inc. in Hampton, New Jersey shows it generated an immune response which affected the growth of tumors in some patients with advanced stages of cancer. The early-stage trial, conducted with researchers from seven university or research institute labs appears…
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Blood Glucose Control Drug Approved for Type 2 Diabetes
15 April 2014. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug albiglutide to help adults with type 2 diabetes control their blood glucose levels. Albiglutide is marketed in the U.S. under the brand name by Tanzeum by the global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Diabetes is a chronic condition where the pancreas does not create enough…
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Clinical Trial to Test Advanced Lung Cancer Immunotherapy
7 April 2014. EMD Serono, a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Merck in Rockland, Massachusetts, is beginning a clinical trial to test a vaccine-type therapy for advanced cases of non-small cell lung cancer. The late-stage trial is assessing the ability of tecemotide, an experimental drug designed to trigger an immune response against cancer cells, to…
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Daiichi Sankyo, UCSF Partner on Neurodegenerative Disorders
4 April 2014. The pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo in Tokyo and University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) are collaborating on discovering new drugs to treat neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. While funding amounts were not disclosed, the deal gives Daiichi Sankyo the option to license compounds discovered through the partnership,…
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Baxter Acquiring Hemophilia Gene-Therapy Biotech Company
3 April 2014. Baxter International, a pharmaceutical and medical products company in Deerfield, Illinois is buying Chatham Therapeutics LLC, a developer of gene therapy to treat hemophilia. Under the agreement, Baxter will acquire outstanding LLC interests in Chatham for $70 million, but future milestone payments are also possible. The acquisition gives Baxter access to all…