-
FDA Approves New Influenza Treatment
23 December 2014. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved yesterday a drug to treat influenza infections in adults. The treatment, Rapivab, is a small molecule drug made by BioCryst Pharmaceuticals in Durham, North Carolina. BioCryst designs and develops therapies that block enzymes involved in infectious and inflammatory diseases, with a technology that creates synthetic compounds using…
-
Trial Testing Biologic Treatment for Hepatitis D
22 December 2014. An intermediate-stage clinical trial testing a biologic treatment made by Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Inc. shows lower hepatitis D virus levels among patients taking the treatment compared to a placebo. The San Carlos, California company says the treatment, called lonafarnib, also received orphan drug status by regulatory authorities in the U.S. and Europe. Hepatitis…
-
3-D Tissue Assembly System Designed
22 December 2014. Medical and engineering researchers at Brown University in Providence developed a system that puts together synthetic tissue components into larger tissue assemblies, a step in the creation of synthetic organs. A description of the system from the lab of Brown bioengineering professor Jeffrey Morgan was published on Saturday in the journal Tissue…
-
Lilly, Biotech Partner on Fast-Acting Insulin Analog
19 December 2014. The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company and biotechnology company Adocia are collaborating on commercial development of Adocia’s fast-acting synthetic insulin product. Adocia, based in Lyon, France, can gain as much as $570 million in the deal, not counting royalties on future sales. Adocia develops enhanced formulations of protein-based therapies either on…
-
Juno Therapeutics Raises $265 Million in IPO
19 December 2014. Juno Therapeutics, a biotechnology company spun-off from research labs in Seattle and New York, raised some $265 million yesterday in its initial public stock offering. The Seattle enterprise developing cancer therapies that harness the immune system issued 11 million shares of common stock priced at $24.00, and trades on the Nasdaq exchange…
-
Autoimmune Therapy Developer Raises $23M in Early Funds
18 December 2014. Padlock Therapeutics, a biotechnology company creating treatments for diseases where the immune system attacks the body, gained $23 million in its first venture funding round. Financing for the Cambridge, Massachusetts enterprise was led by Atlas Venture, with participation from Index Ventures, MS Ventures, and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, the company’s venture…
-
Simpler, Lens-Free Microscope Developed
18 December 2014. Engineers and medical researchers at University of California in Los Angeles designed a new type of microscope that combines holograms with computational techniques to generate images of pathology samples with quality comparable to lens-type microscopes. The team led by electrical and biomedical engineering professor Aydogan Ozcan published its findings yesterday in the…
-
Janssen, Biotech Partner on Drug Delivery Technology
17 December 2014. Halozyme Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in San Diego, is licensing its drug delivery technology for under-the-skin injections to Janssen Biotech, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical companies and a division of Johnson & Johnson. The deal is expected to bring Halozyme up to $581 million in initial and milestone payments. Halozyme develops synthetic…
-
Eye Tracking System Devised to Diagnose Brain Injuries
17 December 2014. Researchers at New York University Medical Center designed a technology that spots brain injuries in patients by tracking their eye movements while watching a few minutes of videos. The team led by neuroscience and physiology professor Uzma Samadani, with colleagues from other NYU departments and VA New York Harbor Healthcare System, published…
-
Spin-Off Building Simplifed Signal Processing Connections
16 December 2014. An engineering lab at Columbia University in New York is spinning off a new company aiming to design simpler connections between analog and digital signals as systems get smaller and performance becomes more demanding. Seamless Devices Inc., founded by electrical engineering professor Peter Kinget and former graduate student Jayanth Kuppambatti, began in…