Tag: pharmaceuticals
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Clinical Trial Underway for Cancer Stem Cell Therapy
OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotechnology company in Redwood City, California, began dosing patients enrolled in a clinical trial of its therapy addressing cancer stem cells. The phase 1 trial is testing OMP-52M51, a monoclonal antibody — a type of engineered antibody molecule — designed for patients with hematologic cancers, in this case lymphoid malignancies. Cancer…
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Biogen Idec, Four Universities Partner on ALS Therapies
Biogen Idec, a biotechnology company in Weston, Massachusetts, will collaborate with researchers from Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and Rockefeller universities to identify new treatment strategies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The company says it is committing $10 million over three years to the research consortium. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rapidly progressive…
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Merck, GE Healthcare Partner on Alzheimer’s Treatment Trial
The pharmaceutical company Merck and GE Healthcare, the medical technologies unit of General Electric, are collaborating in a clinical trial of Merck’s drug candidate for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The trial is testing Merck’s compound known as MK-8931, a beta amyloid precursor protein site cleaving enzyme inhibitor. The accumulation of beta amyloid proteins in…
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University Biotech Spinoff Secures $38M Venture Funding
Naurex Inc., a spin-off company from Northwestern University creating neurological and psychiatric drugs, closed a $38 million series B venture round, the second financing cycle after start-up. Financing for the Evanston, Illinois biotechnology company was led by new investor Baxter Ventures, and joined by new investor Savitr Capital, as well as 10 current backers including…
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Safety Info Variations Found between Branded, Generic Drugs
Researchers at the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis found safety warnings on drug labels vary on a large majority of drugs between their brand-name and generic equivalents. The findings of the team led by Regenstrief professor of internal medicine Jon Duke appear online in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety…
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Wake Forest Health Expands Commercialization Program
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina started a new division to encourage development of new products and services from its research. Wake Forest Innovations, as the division is called, is expected to generate new revenue streams for the medical center by growing and managing new business partnerships. Wake Forest Innovations has a…
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New Life Sciences Venture Fund to Invest in Europe, U.S.
Sofinnova Partners, a venture capital company in Paris, closed its seventh fund focusing on investments in life sciences start-up companies, valued at €240 million ($312 million). Sofinnova Partners is affiliated with Sofinnova Ventures, a life sciences venture capital company in Menlo Park, California. The company says contributors to the Sofinnova Capital VII fund are major…
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Lower Copays, Mail Orders Close Hypertension Drug Gaps
Researchers with the health care system Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California found lower copayments and use of mail-order refills help reduce race and ethnic disparities in drug adherence for patients diagnosed with high blood pressure. The findings on medicine-taking behavior and measures to cut those differences in drug adherence are reported online in the journal…
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MD Anderson, GlaxoSmithKline Partner on Cancer Immunotherapy
MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, part of the University of Texas, and the global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline will jointly conduct research leading to new therapeutic antibodies that help the immune system fight cancer. The agreement over its full lifetime could earn MD Anderson as much as $335 million. The agreement gives GlaxoSmithKline exclusive worldwide…
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Process Converts Greenhouse Gas into Useful Chemicals
Chemists at University of Southern California in Los Angeles devised a method for changing fluoroform, a common yet potent greenhouse gas, into reagents for producing pharmaceuticals and agriculture chemicals. The team led by G.K. Surya Prakash, director of USC’s Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute, published its findings in this week’s issue of the journal Science (paid…