Tag: pharmaceuticals
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Genomics Biotech Raises $40 Million in Venture Funds
Moderna Therapeutics, a biotechnology start-up in Cambridge, Massachusetts developing therapies harnessing messenger RNA, secured some $40 million in venture funding. The financing for this round was led by Flagship Ventures that incubated Moderna Therapeutics, and includes other unamed private investors. The two-year-old company, founded and based on research by scientists at Harvard University and MIT,…
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MIT Entrepreneurial Center Awards Technology Grants
A division of Massachusetts Institute of Technology that promotes entrepreneurship awarded new grants to eight research teams working on early-stage technologies. The Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT says the grants total $706,000 and cover projects ranging from semiconductor manufacturing to retinal disease detection. The grants support early-stage research and development of new solutions,…
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Process Created for Stem Cells from Routine Blood Samples
Medical researchers at University of Cambridge in the U.K. developed a process to extract induced pluripotent stem cells from a routine blood sample. The team led by Cambridge’s Amer Rana published its findings yesterday online in the journal Stem Cells: Translational Medicine. Induced pluripotent stem cells are adult cells genetically reprogrammed to resemble embryonic stem…
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Report: Pharmas Increasing Medicine Access in Poor Regions
A foundation in the Netherlands reports that developing areas of the world have more access to drugs from the top 20 pharmaceutical companies than two years ago. The Access to Medicine Foundation that publishes a bi-annual index of drug access in developing regions says GlaxoSmithKline repeats in 2012 as the leading company in making its…
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U.K. Medical Tech Company Acquires Wound Care Developer
Smith & Nephew, a medical technology company in London, is purchasing Healthpoint Biotherapeutics, a developer of wound treatments in Fort Worth, Texas. In the transaction, Smith & Nephew will acquire all Healthpoint assets for $782 million in cash, with the deal expected to close next month. Olivier Bohuon, Smith & Nephew’s CEO, says the acquisition…
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Microneedles Found Effective as Syringe for Measles Vaccine
Biomedical engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), both in Atlanta, found microneedle patches could deliver a vaccine for measles to lab animals as effectively as a conventional hypodermic needle. The team led by Georgia Tech’s Mark Prausnitz published its findings online in a recent issue of the…
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Stem Cells Devised for Rare Disease Boost Personal Medicine
Medical researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York developed a method of screening treatments for a rare genetic disorder that the authors say could be applied to tests of stem-cell derived personalized medicines. The team led by Gabsang Lee at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering published…
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U.S. Patent Awarded for Protein Therapy Delivery Technology
Medgenics Inc., a biotechnology company in Misgav, Israel and San Francisco, received a U.S. patent for its technology for the sustained delivery of therapeutic proteins to treat anemia. Patent number 8,293,463 was awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on 23 October 2012 to 11 inventors, including Andrew Pearlman, president of Medgenics Inc., and…
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FDA Approves Cell Culture Seasonal Flu Vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration approved yesterday Flucelvax, the first seasonal influenza vaccine cleared for use in the U.S., produced with cultured animal cells, instead of fertilized chicken eggs. Flucelvax is made by the global pharmaceutical company Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland. The virus strains in the vaccine are grown in animal cells of mammalian…
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Gene Therapy Biotech Secures $37.5 Million in Venture Funds
Applied Genetic Technologies Corp., a biotechnology company in Gainesville, Florida, gained $37.5 million in series B funds, the second round of financing after initial start-up. Alta Partners and S.R. One Ltd led the financing, with new investor Osage University Partners joining existing investors InterWest, Intersouth Partners, and MedImmune Ventures in the round. Applied Genetic Technologies…