Tag: Europe
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Novartis Licensing Biotechs’ Gene-Editing Technologies
7 January 2015. Pharmaceutical maker Novartis is licensing technologies from two biotechnology companies that enable the editing of human genomes to cure disease. Financial details of the agreements with Caribou Biosciences Inc. in Berkeley, California and Intellia Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts were not disclosed, but involve equity investments, initial payments and research support, and milestone…
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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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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…
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Nanomedicine Developer Secures $7.5M Venture Funds
15 December 2014. Cristal Therapeutics, a developer of medications formulated as nanoscale particles, raised more than €6 million ($7.5 million) in early-stage venture funds. The financing round for the company, based in Maastricht, The Netherlands, was led by Chemelot Ventures, with current seed investors Thuja Capital, BioGeneration Ventures, Nedermaas, Utrecht University Holding, and Beheer Innovatiefonds…
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AstraZeneca, Lilly Begin Alzheimer’s Drug Trial
1 December 2014. The pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Company began enrolling patients in a clinical trial testing an experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The intermediate and late-stage trial aims to recruit some 1,550 patients in 15 countries to test safety and effectiveness of the drug code-named AZD3293 against a placebo with patients…
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Human Longevity Accessing Twins Genomic Database
13 November 2014. Human Longevity Inc., a bioinformatics and genomics company for solving age-related medical problems, is getting access to a database of genome and gut microbe samples from twins in the U.K. to provide a broader analytical base for designing new diagnostics and therapies. Financial details of the agreement between the San Diego company founded…
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Type 2 Diabetes Technology Licensed in $1 Billion Deal
12 November 2014. Intarcia Therapeutics Inc., developing a drug and delivery mechanism to treat type 2 diabetes, licensed its technology to the pharmaceutical company Servier in a deal with a potential value of $1 billion. The agreement gives Servier exclusive rights to Intarcia’s diabetes treatment technology to regions outside of the U.S. and Japan. Intarcia’s…
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Trial Shows Engineered Antibody Relieves Psoriasis
11 November 2014. A late-stage clinical trial shows a monoclonal antibody, a type of engineered biological therapy, cleared more people of the skin condition plaque psoriasis than a placebo or a competitive treatment. The biologic drug, brodalumab, is developed by the biotechnology company Amgen and pharmaceutical maker AstraZeneca. Plaque psoriasis is the most common type…
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Experimental Drug Kills Myeloma Cells in Lab, Trial Planned
13 October 2014. Medical researchers at Imperial College London in the U.K. developed an experimental drug that in lab and animal tests kills multiple myeloma cancer cells without the toxic side effects of other cancer drugs. The team led by Imperial medical professor Guido Franzoso published its findings today in the journal Cancer Cell, with…
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Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Arm Given Long-Term Test
9 October 2014. Biomedical engineers in Sweden developed and tested for 18 months a prosthetic device connected to a man’s amputated arm that provides electrical signaling with his mind and body. The team of biomedical engineering Ph.D. candidate Max Ortiz-Catalan and professor Bo Håkansson from Chalmers University of Technology and orthopedist Rickard Brånemark of Sahlgrenska…