News and Trends 24 Sep 2019 Lab-Grown Skin as Good as Skin Grafts for Burns at Phase III Mallinckrodt’s treatment made of artificial skin tissue called Stratagraft closed over 80% of second-degree burn wounds in a phase III trial, matching the effectiveness of skin grafts. Mallinckrodt recruited 71 patients with second-degree burns who were eligible for skin grafts into the trial. Each patient received the artificial skin graft on some areas of burned […] September 24, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 Sep 2019 UK Cancer Biotech Raises €11M Series A to Break Up Brain Tumors The Cambridge-based company Divide and Conquer has raised €11.3M (£10M) to develop a treatment that breaks up glioblastoma tumors, exposing them to attack by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. With this Series A round, funded by the UK VC firm Medicxi, Divide and Conquer has exited stealth mode a year after its foundation. The company will use […] September 18, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 17 Sep 2019 UK Biotech to Fight Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria with €8M Grant The UK biotech Procarta Biosystems has received a grant worth up to €8.3M from the nonprofit US partnership CARB-X to develop drugs that kill antibiotic-resistant pathogens while sparing benign bacteria in the gut. The total funding includes €2M upfront and up to an extra €6.3M that Procarta will receive if it hits unspecified milestones. Procarta […] September 17, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Sep 2019 Icelandic Company to Sequence 225,000 Genomes from UK Patients The Icelandic genomics company deCODE genetics has joined the UK’s Wellcome Sanger Institute in sequencing 450,000 genomes as part of a massive €224M (£200M) project organized by the UK Biobank initiative. The UK Biobank’s €224M grant includes €56M (£50M) from the UK government, €56M from the UK’s Wellcome Trust charity, and €112M (£100M) from big […] September 13, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 13 Sep 2019 This Biotech Makes Meat Substitutes from Crops Using Fungi We’re traveling to Glasgow, UK, this week. The biotech 3F BIO is using fungi to convert plant sugars into proteins in a process that uses less than half of the water and feed that farming animal meat requires. Mission: To turn plant sugars into proteins using fungi, which could help to feed the growing world’s […] September 13, 2019 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 Sep 2019 Blood Test Increases Early Lung Cancer Diagnosis in UK Trial A blood test for anti-cancer antibodies, developed by the UK diagnostics company Oncimmune, detected more early cases of lung cancer than standard clinical monitoring procedures in a trial with more than 12,000 patients. Oncimmune’s trial recruited 12,209 patients with a high risk of developing lung cancer through smoking and family history, and monitored them for […] September 10, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Sep 2019 Orchard’s Gene Therapy Improves Children’s Motor Ability Orchard Therapeutics’ gene therapy for metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) resulted in motor ability improvements more than six times over the target endpoint, according to data released at a recent symposium. “Metachromatic leukodystrophy is a rare disease that affects the brain,” explained Mark Rothera, CEO of Orchard Therapeutics. “Kids born with MLD lose motor function very fast […] September 5, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 22 Aug 2019 Two-Drug HIV Therapy Given Every 2 Months Proves Effective in Phase III An experimental HIV therapy being developed by GSK spinoff ViiV Healthcare in partnership with Janssen has proven it is as effective when given every two months as when given once a month. “For the first time since the AIDS epidemic started more than 30 years ago, our study has demonstrated that it is possible to […] August 22, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 16 Aug 2019 First Potential Chlamydia Vaccine Shows Early Promise A vaccine targeting the sexually transmitted infection chlamydia, which would be the first of its kind if approved, has proved safe and able to stimulate the immune system in a phase I trial. In the phase I trial, the vaccine was injected into 35 healthy women. Blood samples from the volunteers were then measured to […] August 16, 2019 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Startup Scout 16 Aug 2019 This Biotech Fights Alzheimer’s Disease by Targeting Support Brain Cells It’s time to go to London, UK, this week. The UK biotech AstronauTx is developing drugs that could slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease by aiming at star-shaped cells in the brain called astrocytes. Mission: To develop small molecule drugs targeting astrocytes, whose inflammatory activity is linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease […] August 16, 2019 - 4 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 14 Aug 2019 Engineered Skin Shows Potential to Treat Burns in Phase I Engineered skin tissue, developed as a regenerative medicine by the UK-US pharma company Mallinckrodt, has reduced the need for skin grafts in burns victims in a phase Ib trial. The phase I trial tested Mallinckrodt’s engineered skin treatment in 29 patients suffering from deep second degree burns. Patients with these burns have damage to the […] August 14, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Aug 2019 AskBio Acquires Scottish Biotech to Make Gene Therapies More Precise The US company AskBio has acquired the Edinburgh-based Synpromics to pool their gene therapy technologies and produce inducible gene therapies that target particular organs or cells. AskBio specializes in developing viral vectors that carry gene therapies into cells, such as adeno-associated virus, whereas Synpromics develops DNA sequences called promoters that drive the expression of gene […] August 13, 2019 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email