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Biosimilar Shown Effective for Rheumatoid Arthritis
4 February 2015. A biologic therapy for rheumatoid arthritis was shown to work as well as an approved name-brand biologic treatment in a late-stage clinical trial, according to findings released by biotechnology company Amgen. The study found Amgen’s biologic code-named ABP501 performed as well as adalimumab, marketed as Humira by AbbVie, in relieving symptoms of…
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Multiple Sclerosis Patients to Crowdsource Health Data
3 February 2015. A new initiative, called iConquerMS, is recruiting 20,000 patients with multiple sclerosis in the U.S. to offer their health data and research ideas to find a cure for the disease. iConquerMS is an undertaking of the Accelerated Cure Project for MS, with the research network segment funded by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute or…
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Neuro Disease Biotech Raises $20M in Early Funds
3 February 2015. Lysosomal Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company developing treatments for inherited neurodegenerative disorders, raised $20 million in its first venture funding round. The Cambridge, Massachusetts enterprise, begun last year, is backed by several venture capital funds and pharmaceutical companies. Lysosomal Therapeutics is based on the research of Dimitri Krainc, a neurologist now at Northwestern…
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NIH Grant Funding Stress-Obesity Control System
2 February 2015. A team from University of Massachusetts Medical School and Worcester Polytechnic Institute are creating a smartphone app combined with a cloud-based data store to help people who overeat due to stress control their eating. The system known as the RELAX Application Suite is funded by a 3-year, $2 million grant from National…
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Lung Cancer Antibody Given FDA Breakthrough Tag
2 February 2015. An experimental engineered antibody for treating lung cancer received a breakthrough designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Genentech, a biotechnology subsidiary of drug maker Roche, says breakthrough status was granted for its cancer immunotherapy code-named MPDL3280A to treat programmed death-ligand 1 or PD-L1 positive non-small cell lung cancer whose disease…
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$50M Grant Funding Research to Improve Vaccine Effects
30 January 2015. Researchers at Stanford University in California are beginning an interdisciplinary project to improve the way vaccines harness the immune system for protecting against disease. The initiative, which will establish a Human Systems Immunology Center at Stanford, is funded by a 10-year, $50 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Immunologist…
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Gene Therapy Biotech Raises $161M in IPO
30 January 2015. Spark Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company in Philadelphia, is raising $161 million in its initial public stock offering. The company, developing genetic therapies for inherited diseases, priced 7 million shares of its common stock at $23.00 a share. The stock trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol ONCE, and as of…
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Cancer Progress Indicators Devised
29 January 2015. Researchers in public health and cancer medicine developed statistical tools that capture findings on cancer treatments and care, and provide indicators of progress in defeating the disease. A team from Lilly Oncology — with colleagues from the U.S., Germany, U.K., and Italy — published its findings about the Continuous Innovation Indicators initiative…
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AstraZeneca Begins Four Gene-Editing Collaborations
29 January 2015. The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is taking part in collaborations with research institutes and a company in the U.S. and U.K. to discover new drug targets based on an emerging genome-editing technology. Financial and intellectual property details of the partnerships with Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Innovative Genomics Initiative, Broad Institute and Whitehead Institute,…
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Trial to Test Drug to Delay Early-Onset Alzheimer’s
28 January 2015. A clinical trial is planned to test a current drug for epilepsy as a way to delay the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The late-stage trial undertaken by AgeneBio Inc., a start-up pharmaceutical company in Baltimore, is funded by a $900,000 grant from Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. The trial aims to address…