News and Trends 13 Dec 2017 Biotech and Pharma Giants Make a Good Start to Phase II Trial for Skin Cancer Regeneron and Sanofi have announced positive early results from a Phase II study investigating their skin cancer antibody, cemiplimab. Despite deciding to end their antibody partnership at the end of the year, Regeneron and Sanofi are still committed to pushing through a number of candidates. One of these, cemiplimab, is a programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) checkpoint […] December 13, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Dec 2017 Off-the-Shelf CAR-T Cells Struggle to Improve Cancer Treatment Data presented at ASH 2017 shows that Servier and Pfizer’s UCART19, an allogeneic CAR-T therapy originally developed by Cellectis, might struggle to outperform autologous CAR-T cells. CAR-T cell therapy has proved to be effective at treating cancer in patients for whom scarce hope was left. Yet pricing is still a big concern. Companies like Cellectis are trying […] December 13, 2017 - 4 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Dec 2017 CRISPR Therapeutics Plans First CRISPR/Cas9 Clinical Trial in Europe for 2018 CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals are taking action to start a first clinical trial with CRISPR/Cas9 in Europe in 2018. The blood disorder β-thalassemia could soon be the first human disease to be treated using CRISPR/Cas9 technology in Europe. CRISPR Therapeutics and its partner Vertex Pharmaceuticals have announced the first candidate from their collaboration that will go […] December 13, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Dec 2017 New Belgian Biotech Secures €27M Series A to Develop Peptide Antibiotics Aelin Therapeutics will develop its Pept-in technology, which could hold the answer to the growing antibiotics resistance crisis. Aelin Therapeutics is a Belgian biotherapeutics company that is hoping to pioneer Pept-in, protein knockdown drugs that could revolutionize the antibiotics field and open up previously undruggable targets. The company was founded by VIB and partner universities […] December 13, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
In Depth 13 Dec 2017 How Biotech Could Change Your Christmas Dinner Turkey, roast potatoes, gravy, pigs in blankets… For me, food is an essential part of Christmas. But, biotechs are working on approaches that in the next few years could change the food that we’re scarfing down. With the big day not far away, many of our minds will have crept ahead to Christmas dinner. On […] December 13, 2017 - 6 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Dec 2017 British Biotech Gets $15M as its Armed Oncolytic Virus Enters the Clinic PsiOxus will receive a generous milestone payment from Bristol-Myers Squibb, which licenses the biotech’s oncolytic virus technology. PsiOxus hopes to become the world’s leading immuno-oncolytic company, systemically administering “gene therapy for tumors.” Today, the biotech has announced that its Clinical Trial Application for NG-348 for the treatment of solid tumors, has been approved. Under the terms of […] December 12, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Dec 2017 Immunotherapy for Uveal Melanoma is on Track for Early Access in the UK The UK grants Immunocore access to a fast-track scheme that will make its immunotherapy IMCgp100 available to patients with uveal melanoma before approval. The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has deemed Immunocore’s technology worth being used by patients before it’s approved. The regulatory agency has granted Promising Innovative Medicines (PIM) designation to IMCgp100 for […] December 12, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Dec 2017 New Dutch Biotech Sails Straight into Phase II with €25M Series A to Treat NASH NorthSea Therapeutics has been founded in the Netherlands to develop a drug against NASH, a disease with no treatment and a huge market. With a €25M investment in Series A, NorthSea Therapeutics is all set to start Phase II trials in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and take on a very profitable market. The fundraising was led by Forbion […] December 12, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Dec 2017 An FDA First! Sanofi’s “Follow-on” Insulin Gets a Thumbs Up Sanofi’s rapid-action insulin, Admelog, will be the first “follow-on” insulin product on the market to help diabetics manage their blood sugar at mealtimes. Sanofi has announced the FDA approval of Admelog, the first “follow-on” mealtime insulin available to type 1 and type 2 diabetics. This gave the company’s stock price a boost of 1.1% this morning, which is […] December 12, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Dec 2017 The Largest Medtech Fund in Europe is Here Thanks to This Dutch VC LSP has closed a €280M fund, Health Economics Fund 2, that is dedicated to medtech with a focus on containing costs while delivering effective healthcare. There’s a new medtech fund in town, Health Economics Fund 2 (HEF 2), and it’s the largest in Europe. Managed by Partners Anne Portwich, Rudy Dekeyser, Fouad Azzam, Clemens van Blitterswiik, […] December 12, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Evelyn Warner Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Best in Biotech 12 Dec 2017 Grab the Tissues: Here are the 8 Biggest European Biotech Clinical Failures of 2017 As 2016 was a tough year for biotech, 2017 was under pressure to turn things around. Although there has been an improvement, there were some notable speed bumps for the industry. 2017 started brightly, with 14 FDA approvals by April – a big improvement on 2016, which only saw 22 in the whole year. The […] December 12, 2017 - 7 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 11 Dec 2017 Belgian Antibody Proves Effective to Treat Myasthenia Gravis A Phase II proof of concept study has shown that one of Argenx’ antibodies is effective in treating the neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis. Argenx has released the results from a Phase II trial with ARGX-113 (efgartigimod), in which the antibody therapy has proved to provide a significant improvement in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis, a form of the disease […] December 11, 2017 - 1 minutemin - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email