It is one of the biggest hurdles NASA must overcome before astronauts embark on long duration space travel to Mars or building permanent settlements on the moon: how to minimize the heavy toll exacted on even the most physically fit human bodies in zero gravity. So to help ensure astronauts don't arrive at their [...]
Nick Vita, CEO and co-founder of medical cannabis company Columbia Care, talks about being acquired by Canaccord Genuity Growth Corp. and what it will allow the company to do.
A growing number of researchers are transitioning from the traditional academic route to entrepreneurship. In doing so, these individuals often find themselves in unexpected leadership roles. Prior to Noxopharm, I spent a significant amount of time as a medical researcher at The University of Sydney and developed a scientific hypothesis that led me to [...]
Synaptive Medical is developing a magnetic resonance imaging system that aims to provide the imaging technology directly at the point of care. The Nova Scotia Halifax Authority is collaborating on the project to develop the head-only MRI—called Evry—with Synaptive Medical, a designer of surgical planning and navigation technologies. The technology will be worked on [...]
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals has added a triple-combination arm to its chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) clinical trial. The cohort will assess ARO-HBV in combination with two undisclosed drugs selected by Johnson & Johnson. J&J secured the global rights to phase 1/2 RNAi therapy ARO-HBV last year for $175 million up front. The original deal committed J&J [...]
Pennsylvania-based health company Orchestra BioMed has obtained FDA breakthrough device designation for its Virtue sirolimus-eluting balloon (SEB), according to a statement issued April 24. Virtue SEB, a drug/device combination product that delivers sustained-released bioabsorbable nanoparticle-encapsulated sirolimus directly to a patient’s artery during balloon angioplasty, works without the need for a drug coating, Orchestra said. It’s [...]
We spoke with Robert Geho, CEO of Diasome Pharmaceuticals, Inc. — www.diasome.com — about its nanotechnology additive that delivers insulin to the liver where it can substantially improve T1D glucose control.
Roland Bürli, Ph.D., who headed up neuroscience medicinal chemistry at AstraZeneca, has left the British drugmaker for greener pastures. He joins Cerevance as vice president of drug discovery as the CNS-focused biotech looks to advance a suite of treatments for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
Patrik De Haes, MD is CEO of Oxurion (Oxurion.com). Their first major success was cardiac drug tPA; today, Jetrea is their first commercialized product for diabetic eye disease, with three new molecules for diabetic eye disease in development.
Repairing a damaged organ in order to allow an individual to have a healthier life, as well as a greater quality of life, could soon be a reality as New York-based Angion Biomedica Corp.moves toward completing clinical trials of its lead asset.
Nurix is flipping the concept of targeted protein degradation on its head. In addition to the usual approach of inducing target destruction, the company has technology that can block E3 ligase activity and increase a protein’s levels. The latter is the basis of its preclinical immuno-oncology partnership with Celgene Corp.
Earlier this month, several people took a pill that might have the ability to prevent colorectal cancer. These individuals are participants of a new pilot study launched by Check-Cap, a medical diagnostics company intent on developing the world’s first ingestible imaging capsule for colorectal cancer screening.
In this episode, Dr. Gabrail and Carrie discuss colon cancer with special guest Anders Rabbe the CEO of Isofol.
Having long been demoted to tool compound status, shRNA is gaining renewed attention as a therapeutic modality by offering a simpler path to creating next-generation cell therapies than gene editing. Celyad has jumped in, using Horizon Discovery’s shRNA platform to launch a new arm of its CAR T cell pipeline.
Scientist Wenning Qin holds up a Petri dish, carefully sloshes around the pink liquid inside, and slides it under a microscope. Some identical tiny slashes come into focus. These cells, she explains, are derived from the ear of a pig. And they may contain the future of animal to human organ transplantation.Click edit button [...]
Reata CEO Warren Huff discusses his company's new drug, which has shown signs it can reverse kidney damage.
Transitions challenge every company, but maybe biopharmas most of all. Drug development consists of a series of big steps, each one bringing a dramatic increase in the scale of a company’s expertise, operations, and risk-taking. Vyome is reaching the cusp of an upcoming Phase 2b trial, and it faces its greatest transition so far [...]
The French company OSE Immunotherapeutics has signed a partnership to use artificial intelligence to develop treatments for tumors that don’t respond to checkpoint inhibitor drugs.
SM04690 is a small-molecule inhibitor of the Wnt pathway currently in clinical trials to evaluate its use managing knee osteoarthritis (OA). The treatment is an intra-articular injection being developed as a disease-modifying osteoarthritis drug (DMOAD). Preclinical data suggest this agent has a dual action mechanism, with three joint health effects: cartilage generation, slowing of cartilage breakdown [...]
Next-gen bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) are on the move. The blockbuster potential of the class has galvanized biopharma, with deals and assets racing to capture the pole position as the entire field gains speed.
Hopes for a precision approach for the vast cardiovascular disease population live on – past failed studies of HDL-raising drugs and lack of evidence for genetic typing in Merck's latest analysis of anacetrapib in REVEAL.
Pfizer, Roche, Lilly and finally, Merck. One by one, they ended their CETP inhibitor programs, giving up the ghost on a once-vaunted class of cholesterol-targeting drugs thought to be a potential game-changer for heart disease. In spite of the mass exodus, little DalCor Pharmaceuticals emerged in 2015, with the Roche castoff dalcetrapib and a [...]
“Drugs currently on the market to treat hypertension work on the blood vessels by either dilating them, reducing pressure in them by eliminating salt and water or slowing down the heart rate,” said Bruno Besse, M.D., medical director of the French biotech company Quantum Genomics, which developed the drug.
ProQR Therapeutics, a company focused on treating rare diseases, announced plans to advance its pipeline of RNA medicines to treat inherited retinal diseases to include two fully approved commercial products in Europe and the U.S., three late-stage clinical therapies and seven early-stage therapies by 2023.
While clinical data suggest an oral insulin product may finally be within reach, the technology struggles to compete with injectables on price and efficacy. A handful of academics and companies are pushing preclinical innovation in formulation and device design, aiming to solve the commercial conundrum.
Krystal opens cGMP facility for the clinical and commercial manufacture of its lead drug candidate, KB103, and plans to open its second in 2020.
The executives at Alkahest have heard plenty of vampire jokes. They are, after all, turning to blood from young donors in search of an elixir for diseases associated with aging. And yes, they’re in Silicon Valley. But this five-year-old biotech company led by Genentech alums is doing serious science.
An in-house novel RNA-editing technology called Axiomer® may be the treatment answer for people with rare genetic conditions. Axiomer utilizes a person’s own RNA repair mechanism. It can be used to attract this mechanism to a specific mutation in the RNA, where it alters a single nucleotide to repair the mutation and restore the broken [...]
Antibody company Abpro Corp. (Woburn, Mass.) has partnered with Nanjing Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (NJCTTQ) to use Abpro’s DiversImmune antibody discovery platform to develop multiple bispecific antibodies, including T cell engagers, to treat cancer.
Abpro is partnering with China-based NJCTTQ to develop new bispecific antibodies using its antibody discovery platform. Under the agreement, Abpro could collect up to $4 billion, which includes $60 million in “near-term R&D funding,” as well as milestone payments and royalties.
