More News! 25 Mar 2019 Swedish Biotech’s Stock Severely Hit by Failure of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s Drug The failure of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease drug in a phase III trial last week caused BioArctic’s stock price to plummet by 35% on Nasdaq Stockholm. The Swedish company has just begun a phase III trial of its own Alzheimer’s treatment. Last week, Biogen and its pharma collaborator Eisai discontinued the phase III development of an […] March 25, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 15 Mar 2019 This Biotech Wants You to Age Well Age is a risk factor in many diseases, such as cancer and heart disease. The UK biotech Samsara Therapeutics thinks that it can make drugs that can prevent multiple conditions at once by targeting the aging process itself. Mission: To develop drugs that target the biological mechanisms underlying aging. Slowing the aging process seems like […] March 15, 2019 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Mar 2019 Microsoft Aims to Make Cell Therapies Cheaper with Artificial Intelligence Microsoft has launched a collaboration with the UK company Oxford BioMedica to use Microsoft’s artificial intelligence technology to make gene and cell therapy manufacturing easier and cheaper. Genetically programming cells and viruses to make cell and gene therapies is not as simple as programming a computer. Organisms have many layers of complexity and unpredictability, sometimes […] March 14, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Mar 2019 Artificial Intelligence Detects Juvenile Arthritis in the Blood Using artificial intelligence, a Belgian research group can diagnose juvenile arthritis from blood samples with almost 90% accuracy and identify different forms of the disease, something that is not currently possible. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis causes joint pain, swelling and stiffness in children under the age of 16. The disease is hard to treat because there […] March 13, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Mar 2019 Stem Cells and Hydrogel Make Potential Osteoarthritis Treatment Scientists from the Netherlands have received a €600,000 grant to test a treatment for osteoarthritis in humans that combines hydrogels and stem cells to help the knee joint heal. In osteoarthritis, the cartilage in joints such as the knees breaks down, causing stiffness and pain. There is no cure at the moment, and most current […] March 12, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Mar 2019 Blocking Hidden Viral Protein Shows Promise for Treating Multiple Sclerosis An antibody that blocks the action of a hidden viral protein encoded by our genome shows encouraging signs of slowing down the progression of multiple sclerosis, according to the Swiss biotech GeNeuro which carried out the research. GeNeuro’s monoclonal antibody drug targets the hidden viral protein because it’s linked to the occurrence of multiple sclerosis, […] March 12, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Mar 2019 HIV Drug Shows Promise for Treating Ulcerative Colitis Patients A small molecule drug, developed by the company Abivax for treating HIV, has also shown promise for patients with the inflammatory bowel disease ulcerative colitis, reducing the disease severity consistently for over six months. Abivax tested the drug on patients with moderate-to-severe cases of ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel condition that causes rectal bleeding and […] March 8, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Mar 2019 Flu Resistant to Antivirals? This Biotech Has a Drug for That We are visiting the medieval German city of Tübingen this week. It hosts the biotech Atriva Therapeutics, which is developing antiviral drugs for influenza that can circumvent drug resistance. Mission: To make antiviral drugs that, unlike conventional drugs, target the host cell instead of the virus. This can prevent the virus from building resistance to […] March 8, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Mar 2019 Second Patient Achieves HIV Remission After Bone Marrow Transplant to Treat Cancer For the second time in history, an HIV-positive patient with blood cancer has achieved HIV remission following a customized bone marrow transplant to treat their cancer from an HIV-resistant donor. The HIV-positive patient received a bone marrow transplant to treat the blood cancer Hodgkin’s lymphoma, from which he also suffered. The researchers used this cancer […] March 6, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Mar 2019 Seventure Continues Microbiome Investment Success with Second Fund After the success of the world’s first fund dedicated to companies in nutrition, digital health, and the microbiome, the French venture capital firm Seventure Partners has completed the first closing of a second microbiome fund, which is expected to total €200M. The fund is the successor to Seventure’s Health for Life Capital fund, which was […] March 5, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 4 Mar 2019 Swiss Biotech Raises €8.8M to Progress Regenerative Stroke Treatment The Swiss company NovaGo has raised €8.8M (CHF 10M) in Series A funding to develop one of the first therapies to help the nervous system regenerate after a stroke. Novago develops antibodies that inhibit Nogo-A, a key molecule that stops nerve cells from growing new connections in the adult brain and spinal cord. This lets […] March 4, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Mar 2019 Biogen Acquires UK Biotech Developing Gene Therapy for Blindness The big US biotech Biogen has agreed to acquire Nightstar Therapeutics for €773M ($877M), including Nightstar’s candidate gene therapies for inherited blindness. Expected to be complete by mid-2019, Biogen’s acquisition of Nightstar bags it the UK company’s most advanced program. Currently in phase III, the therapy targets choroidemia, an incurable genetic condition which causes progressive […] March 4, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email