Olivia Vizier

The problem of drug resistance isn’t limited to bacteria. It is also a growing concern with fungal species that is causing an increasing need for new agents to combat these microbes. Scynexis is developing the experimental therapy ibrexafungerp, the first of a new class of therapies for serious fungal infections. We spoke to Marco Taglietti, […]

The options that clinicians currently have to treat patients with systemic fungal infections are limited. “Because they’re eukaryotes, many of the potentially available targets that are essential for growth or reproduction in fungi resemble the [equivalent] target in humans, and so are really not available as a drug target,” explained Jeffrey Stein, CEO of US-based antifungal developer

Speciality vaccine biotech Valneva outlines seroconversion rates and safety of candidate Lyme disease vaccine that it is co-developing with partner Pfizer.

Antimicrobial resistance is a looming threat for modern medicine, but Australian biotech Recce Pharmaceuticals might have found a solution in its broad-spectrum synthetic antibiotic. Chloe Kent speaks to Recce executive director of regulatory affairs Michele Dilizia about the idea behind this novel approach.

Investors have boosted biotech startup Cerevance Inc.’s Series B financing to $65 million, powering its search for new approaches to battling neurological diseases. Cerevance, based in Boston, set out in January to raise $60 million. By late March, however, the company had elected to lock in the first $45 million, due to the upheaval caused

Acepodia is using its antibody-cell conjugation platform to link tumor-targeting antibodies to the surface of cell therapies while avoiding genetic engineering. The platform, which has the potential for cost savings compared with CAR T therapy, led JW Therapeutics to partner with the company for commercialization of its lead program Tuesday.

Recce Pharmaceuticals Ltd., which is developing a new class of broad-spectrum synthetic antibiotics, announced positive data showing significant in-vivo antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in rats with topical burns treated with its lead compound RECCE 327.

Biotech firm CalciMedica announced Thursday its anti-inflammatory drug Auxora is showing promise in treating COVID-19 when combined with standard care, reducing ventilator use by half and speeding recovery.

Technology Networks spoke with James Graham, Executive Director at Recce Pharmaceuticals, to learn more about how synthetic antibiotics differ from those derived from natural sources. He also discusses how the company has developed a novel class of synthetic antibiotics and elaborates on their mechanism of action.

Sotio is developing an IL-15 superagonist, SO-C101, as a potent immunotherapy for patients with cancer. This study examined SO-C101 in multiple tumor mouse models alone and in combination with PD-1 inhibition. 

CalciMedica’s preliminary results will be put to the test in a larger clinical trial. San Diego biotech CalciMedica announced Thursday that an experimental drug it is testing to help COVID-19 patients stay off ventilators and recover sooner shows early signs of achieving both goals.

To see the affects of aging all you have to do is look in a mirror and watch the changes over time. Fountain Therapeutics is training its artificial intelligence platform to look at individual cells to detect changes that occur as cells get older and discover therapeutics that target underlying mechanisms of aging. The company

Taiwan biotech Acepodia Inc., of Burlingame, Calif., and Taipei, has licensed out two of its cell therapy candidates, ACE-1702 and ACE-1655, to Chinese CAR T therapy developer JW Therapeutics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. to develop and commercialize them in China, Hong Kong and Macau. Acepodia will receive up-front and milestone payments from JW Therapeutics, plus royalties

Fountain is using an unbiased data-driven approach to identify compounds that reverse the biological process of aging, and in contrast to the traditional disease hypothesis-driven approach, the company is agnostic to indication.

The FDA cleared an investigational new drug application for CYAD-211, a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to a press release from the agent’s manufacturer.

It is astounding how quickly Covid-19 vaccines have progressed into and through clinical trials. However, there are concerns that these vaccines may not be particularly effective at preventing Covid-19 infections in the long-term, leading to the need for improved, next-generation vaccines against this novel coronavirus. One pair of companies working on the next phase of

Neurodegenerative and other central nervous system disorders are some of the hardest to develop treatments for due to our limited understanding of the brain. But Cerevance developed a new technology capable of profiling neuronal and glial cell populations at depths not previously possible, which is allowing the clinical-stage pharmaceutical company to identify potential drug targets in specific

Dr. Jordan Dubow, Chief Medical Officer, Avadel Pharmaceuticals, intent on improving drug delivery technology, is focusing on narcolepsy, a disease that causes severe excessive sleepiness and in many cases cataplexy.  While there seems to be a genetic predisposition for narcolepsy, like many neurological diseases, this rare disease is difficult to diagnose with medicines that treat

At the end of April, Immunomedics (Morris Plains, N.J), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) for hard-to-treat cancers, received FDA accelerated approval for its first ADC, Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy). Although COVID-19 was by then in full swing, the company nonetheless pushed ahead with its launch strategy. Thanks to preparations it had begun making in

Australian company Recce Pharmaceuticals (ASX: RCE) is advancing a synthetic polymer antibiotic designed with optimum properties that exhibits high potency against a broad range of bacteria.

DURECT Corporation is advancing an epigenetic regulator program aimed at developing products to treat acute AH and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a type of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. DURECT’s therapeutics in development have the potential to treat multiple organ injury and chronic liver diseases.

The critical difference is that older patients and those who are immune-compromised tend to lack a robust T-cell response, which Heat Biologics believes is important in preventing the disease. With the typical flu, seniors are often prescribed a double-dose of vaccine to compensate for their inability to mount an effective adaptive response. This approach, however,