News and Trends 4 Jan 2018 Swedish Biotech Pockets $6M as its Cancer Antibody Heads for the Clinic Alligator Bioscience will receive milestone payments from its partner, Janssen, following the announcement of a combination trial using its cancer antibody. Alligator develops antibodies to fight cancer, and today it has announced that it will receive $6M (€5M) in milestone payments from Janssen. This was triggered by the announcement of a combination trial for its candidate, ADC-1013, which […] January 4, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 20 Dec 2017 Actelion Spin Out and Roche Join Forces to Develop Cancer Immunotherapies Idorsia and Roche have agreed on a research collaboration, with the big pharma getting exclusive rights to develop and license resultant cancer immunotherapy drugs. Idorsia was formed out of J&J’s acquisition of Actelion for €27.9B at the beginning of the year. The spin out, led by Jean-Paul and Martine Clozel, kept hold of Actelion’s drug discovery and early […] December 20, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 19 Dec 2017 Giving Molecular Combing the Golden Coat It Deserves The novel spin given to some traditional and established technologies can be astounding. They might have been around for decades, applied in the same way over and over again, and yet, at some point, somebody comes along, observes it in a new light and gives it a brand new polish. One such technology is called […] December 19, 2017 - 5 minutesmins - By External Contributor Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 Dec 2017 Dutch and US Biotechs Team Up Against HPV-related Cancer ISA Pharmaceuticals will work together with Regeneron to combine its immunotherapy against cancer induced by HPV infection with its partner’s PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor. The human papillomavirus (HPV) is known for its ability to cause cancer, including cervical and head and neck cancer. Based in Leiden, the Netherlands, ISA Pharmaceuticals’ target choice is type 16 HPV, which […] December 18, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Best in Biotech 18 Dec 2017 Smile! Here are the 12 Biggest Biotech Clinical Successes of 2017 Now that we’ve got the bad news out of the way, we’re here to spread some Christmas cheer with the biggest clinical successes in biotech over the past 12 months. It’s unlikely that one whole year will ever pass without a single hiccup, especially in a field as complex as biotech. For that reason, we […] December 18, 2017 - 9 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
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 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
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 8 Dec 2017 French Biotech Misfires in Phase IIb Trial for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Erytech’s candidate, Graspa, has been unable to significantly improve overall survival in patients with acute myeloid leukemia during a Phase IIb trial. Erytech, based in Lyon, France, has developed an interesting approach to delivering drugs for the treatment of cancer and orphan diseases. The company’s eryaspase technology, Graspa, encapsulates L-asparaginase, in red blood cells. Graspa was used in combination with chemotherapy […] December 8, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 Dec 2017 Scottish Biotech and Bluebird Bio to Develop Next Generation CAR-T Cells TC Biopharm has scored a deal with bluebird bio for the development of the next generation of CAR-T cells, a technology giving new hope to cancer patients. With the first two CAR-T therapies now in the market, the way we treat cancer is changing. This technology has shown to be effective in a high percentage of patients […] December 7, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 Dec 2017 Taking Aim at Lung Cancer: New Triple Combination Therapy Boosts Survival A new first-line combination therapy for advanced non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer improved progression-free survival during a Phase III trial. Scientists based at the Lung Clinic Grosshansdorf, Hamburg, and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, have presented the results of a Phase III study at the ESMO Immuno Oncology Congress 2017. The study was the first to investigate a combination […] December 7, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email