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Gilead Acquires Biotech Liver Disease Therapies
6 January 2015. Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences bought an experimental drug to treat non-alcoholic liver diseases from Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG, a German biotechnology firm. Gilead, in Foster City, California, is expected to pay Phenex up to $470 million for the drug. Under the deal, Gilead acquires Phenex’s work developing a drug that binds to and…
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RNA Therapies Company Gains $450M in Venture Funds
5 January 2015. Moderna Therapeutics, a developer of medications that use genetic material to produce therapeutic proteins in the body, raised $450 million in its third announced venture financing round. The Cambridge, Massachusetts biotechnology company says existing investors AstraZeneca and Alexion Pharmaceuticals joined with new participants Viking Global Investors LP, Invus, RA Capital Management, and…
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Amgen, Kite Pharma Partner on Personal Cancer Immunotherapy
5 January 2014. The biotechnology companies Amgen and Kite Pharma are developing personalized cancer treatments harnessing the immune system in a deal combining Amgen’s targets with Kite Pharma’s cell therapies. The agreement is expected to bring up to $525 million in milestone payments plus sales royalties to each company, as well as an upfront payment…
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Computer Model Predicts Bacteria Mutations, Aids Drug Design
2 January 2014. Researchers at Duke University and University of Connecticut wrote a mathematical model with open-source software that predicts mutations in bacteria to help design treatments for bacteria resistant to antibiotics. A team of computer scientists and biochemists from the two universities published their findings on 31 December 2014 in Proceedings of the National…
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Happy New Year
1 January 2015. Science and Enterprise wishes all of our visitors a joyous holiday and successful 2015, in any way you define that term. To celebrate the holiday and begin 2015, we offer the new year anthem Auld Lang Syne, sung by Mexican singer and composer Malukah. Science and Enterprise will return to regular posting…
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Project Aims to Boost Ebola Drug Production
31 December 2014. A research team at University of California in Davis aims to find new ways of boosting production capacity of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp. The 1-year project, led by UC-Davis chemical engineering and materials science professor Karen McDonald, is funded by a $200,000 rapid-response grant from National Science Foundation. The current Ebola…
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Pump Device Shown to Deliver Parkinson’s Drug
30 December 2014. A clinical trial testing a pump worn by Parkinson’s disease patients shows the device can continuously deliver drugs under the skin to treat severe forms of the disorder, which today requires a surgical implant. The pump made by NeuroDerm Ltd. in Rehovot, Israel is designed to overcome shortcomings of oral forms of…
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Vaccine Combo Produces Ricin, Anthrax Antibodies
29 December 2014. Tests of a vaccine to prevent ricin and anthrax poisoning shows it produces long-lasting antibodies against both toxins, making a single vaccine against both bioterror agents more feasible. Results of a study by biotechnology company Soligenix Inc. in Princeton, New Jersey are reported in the January 2015 issue of the journal Vaccine…
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Merry Christmas/Feliz Navidad
Science and Enterprise is taking a break tomorrow and Friday for Christmas. In the spirit of the season, here is a video from a group of talented, yet little-known musicians taking part of an initiative called Playing for Change. That organization finds unknown, talented musicians worldwide, many of whom are playing on the street or…
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Early Trial Underway Testing Brain Cancer Drug
24 December 2014. Kinex Pharmaceuticals, a developer of cancer therapies, began an early-stage clinical trial of an experimental treatment for tumors of support cells in the brain. The Buffalo, New York biotechnology company says the first patient received the drug code-named KX2-361 in the trial taking place at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, also in Buffalo,…