More News! 20 Nov 2018 Phase I Gives Hope for First Zika Vaccine Results from a Phase I trial showed promising safety and efficacy of a potential first vaccine against the mosquito-borne Zika virus, developed by French biotech Valneva and US biopharma Emergent BioSolutions. In the US-based Phase I trial, 67 participants were injected with either placebo or inactivated forms of the virus as a vaccine. Two months later, […] November 20, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Nov 2018 Genentech and Immunocore Expand Partnership to Develop Cancer Immunotherapy Immunocore and the US biotech giant Genentech are building on their existing partnership to boost the clinical development of Immunocore’s immunotherapy for treating solid tumors. In the agreement, Genentech, a member of the Roche group, will pay UK-based Immunocore €87.3M ($100M) in an upfront payment and further undisclosed milestone payments as the immunotherapy progresses towards […] November 20, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 19 Nov 2018 Anti-Inflammatory Treatments Get €40M Boost in Series B A Series B funding round has whipped up €40M for the Irish company Inflazome. This money will help to fund clinical trials for anti-inflammatory treatments targeting conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. “We are extremely excited about this opportunity, which is such a large funding round in a European company,” Marco Boorsma, General Partner […] November 19, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 16 Nov 2018 AbbVie Enters Industry Collaboration to Fight Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease The UK biotech Mission Therapeutics has teamed up with AbbVie to develop new drugs to treat the neurodegenerative conditions Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The new collaboration aims to fund the preclinical development of drugs that inhibit proteins called deubiquitinating enzymes. Deubiquitinating enzymes modify proteins in the cell, controlling essential functions such as what the […] November 16, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 16 Nov 2018 This Biotech Measures How Well Kidney Dialysis Machines Filter Your Blood We take a hop, skip and a jump into Tallinn, Estonia this week. Optofluid Technologies is developing sensors that measure blood toxin levels to see how well dialysis procedures are working in kidney failure patients. Mission: To improve the effectiveness of dialysis in kidney failure patients. Optofluid’s experimental optical sensor could give physicians detailed real-time […] November 16, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 15 Nov 2018 Soldier Bug Could Help Combat Antibiotic Resistance A garden insect makes a molecule that attacks the cell wall of bacteria, providing a new potential weapon in the fight against antibiotic resistance. Thanatin is a peptide molecule produced by the spined soldier bug Podisus maculiventris to control the types of bacteria that live in its gut. A research group from the University of Zurich […] November 15, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Nov 2018 Parkinson’s Disease Vaccine Shows Preclinical Promise The biotech company United Neuroscience has developed a candidate Parkinson’s disease vaccine that targets a protein linked to the condition. The vaccine teaches the immune system to attack aggregations of alpha-synuclein. When this protein aggregates in neurons, it can lead to several neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s. In United Neuroscience’s preclinical study, the vaccine was able to prevent the […] November 14, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Nov 2018 CAR-T Promise for Patients with Solid Tumors A new CAR-T cancer therapy from the Belgian company Celyad has shown early positive results against solid tumors in two Phase I trials, including one trial that did not include add-on chemotherapy. In one ongoing Phase I trial, Celyad’s CAR-T therapy, combined with chemotherapy, successfully shrank tumors in three enrolled patients with aggressive colorectal cancer. One […] November 14, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 13 Nov 2018 French Company’s Drug Lowers Blood Pressure by Targeting Brain Proteins The French company Quantum Genomics is developing a first-in-class drug that targets proteins in the brain to lower blood pressure. A Phase IIb trial, run by Quantum Genomics, found that eight weeks of taking its drug significantly lowered blood pressure in patients who were overweight or obese and with high blood pressure. This reduction also […] November 13, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
More News! 12 Nov 2018 This UK Biotech Wants to Make Antibodies Easy to Swallow Say goodbye to painful antibody injections. The UK biotech Intract Pharma has received a €1.6M grant to advance oral immunotherapy based on approved antibodies, causing less discomfort for patients. The grant, awarded by public agency Innovate UK, will help Intract develop oral versions of existing antibody therapies. This could make the treatments easier for patients […] November 12, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 9 Nov 2018 This Biotech Uses Radioactive Chemicals to Diagnose Brain Cancer In Athens, Greece, we find pro-Actina. This biotech is working on a method to diagnose brain cancer by measuring how ‘leaky’ the brain is. Mission: Founded in 2006, the company is working to improve glioma diagnosis by using a combination of CT scans and an injectable radioactive chemical tracer. Gliomas are the most common forms […] November 9, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 8 Nov 2018 Epigenetics Test Can Distinguish Between Huntington’s Disease Stages A study run by Oxford BioDynamics suggests that we could predict Huntington’s more easily by analyzing epigenetic changes in the patient’s DNA. Epigenetics describes the way that the expression of our genes is regulated, often influenced by environmental exposure, without changing the genetic code. Ways of modifying gene expression include attaching chemical groups to DNA […] November 8, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email