News and Trends 13 Dec 2018 Janssen Recruits Microbiome Company to Fight Inflammatory Bowel Disease The Israeli biotech BiomX has teamed up with Janssen to use its microbiome technology in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease. Janssen aims to use BiomX’s technology to predict which patients with inflammatory bowel diseases will respond best its treatments based on their microbiome. The financial details of the collaboration were […] December 13, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Dec 2018 Antibody Hitting Tumor Self-Destruct Button Passes Phase I A first-in-class antibody cancer treatment, from the French company Netris Pharma, has shown good safety and anti-tumor effects in a phase I trial in patients with advanced solid tumors. The antibody met the trial’s primary objective of good tolerability in the 19 recruited patients. In addition, the antibody helped to stabilize the disease and shrink […] December 12, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 12 Dec 2018 Ultrasound Brain Cancer Therapy Gets €9M Series B Funding A Series B funding round has bagged the French company CarThera €9M to fund the clinical development of an ultrasound brain cancer therapy. “The objective was for €8M, and we raised €1M more than expected,” Frederic Sottilini, CEO of CarThera, said to me. “That was very positive for us.” CarThera’s therapy uses a beam of ultrasound […] December 12, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 11 Dec 2018 What Does the Largest Biotech IPO Ever Mean for European Biotech? With a massive €530M ($604M) raised, US-based Moderna has made a record biotech IPO. The news could give a significant boost to developers of messenger RNA, a technology that is still several years away from the market. Entering the Nasdaq with a €7B ($8B) market cap, Moderna made history last Friday with a technology that […] December 11, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 11 Dec 2018 Robotic Organoid Platform to Boost Personalized Medicine The Swiss biotech Sun Bioscience has launched a robotic platform designed to standardize the production of 3D cell models of organs called organoids, making it easier to personalize treatments to a patient. Organoids are clusters of cells grown in the lab, and developed into miniature organs, such as the brain or intestine. Often no bigger […] December 11, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 11 Dec 2018 UK Biotech Settles Lawsuit on the First RNAi Drug Silence Therapeutics and Alnylam have reached a settlement that puts an end to a legal dispute between them resulting in Silence receiving some royalties on Onpattro, the first RNA interference drug. The lawsuit started last year, when Silence went to the UK courts claiming that Alnylam was infringing on its intellectual property. As part of […] December 11, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 10 Dec 2018 Scientists Repurpose Skin Cells to Fight Cancer Researchers have reprogrammed skin cells to make them behave like immune cell sentinels called dendritic cells, which can recruit the immune system to fight tumors. This discovery makes a step toward better cancer immunotherapy. “We are merging two different areas of research,” Carlos-Filipe Pereira, from Lund University, Sweden, said to me. “One of them is […] December 10, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 7 Dec 2018 Orchard’s Gene Therapy for Rare Immune Disease Works for Over a Year A single dose of a gene therapy developed by Orchard Therapeutics can restore immune function for at least a year in patients with X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (X-CGD). The gene therapy was trialed in patients between the ages of 2 and 27 with the rare disease, which is caused by a rare genetic mutation that […] December 7, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Dec 2018 UK Project Hits 100,000 Genomes Target In a step forward for the world of personalized medicine, the UK Government-backed 100,000 Genomes Project has reached its sequencing target. The project, which is one of the largest of its kind, was designed to collect genomic data to improve the capacity of personalized medicine, as well as learning more about the genetic basis of […] December 6, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Helen Albert Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Dec 2018 Update: Liver Gene Therapy 8 Times Stronger Than Usual Update (06/12/2018): uniQure has incorporated Synpromics’ strong liver promoter into a preclinical gene therapy candidate for treating hemophilia A. Published on 08/10/2018 Synpromics and uniQure have unveiled new technology for precise genetic control that could make gene therapy safer and more precise. The team has developed a gene therapy system that is highly selective for […] December 6, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Dec 2018 Llama-Inspired Antibodies Succeed in Clinical Trials and Financial Deal Autoimmune disease and acute myeloid leukemia may have a llama-inspired antibody treatment one day. The Dutch company argenx’s antibodies have shown positive results in clinical trials, and have attracted Janssen into a collaboration to advance their use in cancer immunotherapy. In a phase II trial, the company’s lead antibody, efgartigimod, reduced the number of bleeding […] December 5, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 4 Dec 2018 Gene Therapies for Blood Disorders Marching Through the Clinic Gene therapy holds great potential as a cure for blood disorders such as hemophilia and sickle cell disease, which have limited treatment options. This week, several gene therapy companies have released promising clinical trial results in hemophilia and sickle cell anemia. Presenting at the 2018 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, Dutch company uniQure […] December 4, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Jonathan Smith Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email