Science and Enterprise

Tag: clinical trials

  • Cancer Specialists Offer Plan to Reduce Drug Prices

    23 July 2015. A group of 118 cancer specialists proposed steps to reduce the cost of drugs to cancer patients, calling the current system of drug pricing “unsustainable and not affordable for many patients.” Their recommendations appear today in a commentary published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Pharmaceutical industry representatives, however, say drugs play…

  • Cough Diagnostics Mobile App in Clinical Trial

    22 July 2015. A smartphone app designed to diagnose the nature of a cough by the sound it makes is now being tested in a clinical trial in Australia. The app, developed in the lab of engineering professor Udantha Abeyratne at University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia was licensed to a spin-off company from the…

  • Alliance to Collect Mobile Health Data for Clinical Trials

    21 July 2015. A partnership between health technology companies developing cloud-based solutions aims to make it easier to collect data from a wide range of mobile apps for clinical studies. Financial aspects of the agreement between digital health platform company Validic and clinical research technology company Medidata were not disclosed. Validic, in Durham, North Carolina,…

  • Trial Shows Engineered T-Cells Act on Multiple Myeloma

    21 July 2015. An early-stage clinical trial shows immune system cells from patients with the blood-related cancer multiple myeloma — modified to attack a protein suspected of helping the cancer grow — generated a positive clinical response in most of the participants. The team from University of Pennsylvania cancer center, University of Maryland medical school,…

  • Drug Delivery Biotech Raises $101.8 Million in IPO

    17 July 2015. Chiasma Inc., a biotechnology enterprise developing oral therapies to replace injected drugs, raised some $101.8 million in its initial public stock offering. The company — located in Newton, Massachusetts and Jerusalem, Israel — issued 6,365,000 shares at $16.00, and trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol CHMA. Shares in the company closed…

  • Trial Testing Respiratory Muscle Drug for ALS Patients

    14 July 2015. Biopharmaceutical company Cytokinetics is beginning a late-stage clinical trial of a drug designed to slow the decline of respiratory muscle functions in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a neurodegenerative disorder. In addition, Cytokinetics, in South San Francisco, California, received a $1.5 million grant from the ALS Association supporting the trial,…

  • FDA Clears Biotech Cancer Therapies for Early Trials

    13 July 2015. Biotechnology company Blueprint Medicines says U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted new drug applications on its two lead products, clearing the way for trials with humans. The Cambridge, Massachusetts enterprise is developing cancer therapies, with its lead products targeting liver and gastrointestinal tumors. Blueprint develops cancer therapies that limit the actions of…

  • Allergan Acquires Merck Migraine Therapies

    8 July 2015. The pharmaceutical company Allergan is licensing therapies for treatment and prevention of migraines being developed by Merck, another pharma company. The agreement is expected to bring Merck $250 million over the next year, as well as undisclosed milestone and royalty payments from Allergan. Migraine is a neurological syndrome causing severe headaches along with…

  • FDA Grants Orphan Status to Brain Cancer Surgery Aid

    7 July 2015. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is granting orphan drug status to an engineered peptide that illuminates brain cancer cells making them easier to surgically remove. The treatment, code-named BLZ-100, is made by Blaze Bioscience, a biotechnology company in Seattle. Blaze Bioscience is a spin-off enterprise from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,…

  • Foundation Supporting ALS Pilot Clinical Trials

    1 July 2015. ALS Association is funding pilot studies with patients having amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to confirm biomarkers, or biochemical indicators, that improve responsiveness to therapies. The studies are being conducted by Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical developer in Palo Alto, California, and University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. ALS, also known as Lou…