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
News and Trends 6 Dec 2017 CRISPR Does it Again! Gene Editing Tool Identifies a New Leukemia Target Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have reported that a new target for the treatment of leukemia has been found. A new drug target for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has been identified that could open new avenues for the development of new treatments against the deadly disease. Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have […] December 6, 2017 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Dec 2017 Dutch Bone Marrow Transplant for Blood Cancer could get rid of Donor Matching Kiadis Pharma starts Phase III trials with ATIR101, a therapy that could make half-matched donors suitable for bone marrow transplant to treat blood cancer. From its Amsterdam headquarters, Kiadis Pharma is developing a technology that could solve one of the biggest problems of bone marrow transplantation: finding a donor match. Currently, a bone marrow transplant is […] December 4, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 4 Dec 2017 Meet the CEO Leading Italy’s Charge to Become a Major Biotech Player Riccardo Palmisano is CEO of MolMed, the most important Italian biotech, which focuses on gene and cell therapies. We chatted about the company, which hopes to give the cancer therapies field a boost. You may have come across MolMed before, possibly in our recent piece on the top biotechs in Milan. The company was founded […] December 4, 2017 - 7 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email