Olivia Vizier

Biotechnology startup Cerevance Inc. has secured $45 million to hunt for treatments for neurological diseases by studying samples of brain tissue gathered from deceased donors world-wide.

At GigaGen, a San Francisco-based biotech startup founded by Stanford University professor Dr. Everett Meyer, scientists are identifying the right antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients and hoping to use them as a template for synthesizing new ones, in a more consistent and efficient way so a handful of donors could potentially produce enough antibodies to treat millions

Research is critical during this pandemic. With so much unknown about the coronavirus, doctors and scientists are exploring new methods to finding a treatment. A New Orleans doctor is collecting blood samples from local survivors of Covid-19. The blood samples will help make a new kind of treatment for the masses.

HealthPartners is now testing a drug which could treat severe COVID-19 pneumonia patients. The drug – called CM4620-IE – received fast-track approval from the FDA earlier this month, allowing HealthPartners to begin clinical trials.

Scientists at Immunomedics have similarly loaded their ADC IMMU-132 (sacituzumab govitecan) with about eight SN-38 molecules in hopes of killing tumor cells via the bystander effect. After an initial rejection, IMMU-132 was resubmitted to the FDA for approval as a third-line treatment for late-stage, metastatic triple-negative breast cancer late last year.

“We need to have a more innovative approach to neuroscience; the pharmaceutical industry has been fixated too long on a handful of targets for serious neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders, we now need to push past the investment risks and pursue novel approaches to treating these conditions,” according to Brad Margus, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

By the time Paul Huling needed surgery last fall, he couldn’t use his left arm. Huling first noticed a problem a few weeks before when he woke up with what felt like a stiff, sore neck. Soon, pain and tingling progressed. It started extending from his neck into his shoulder, then spreading down the limb.

Soon-Shiong explained that N-803 had also proven effective in a first-in-human immunotherapy clinical trial combining an IL-15 superagonist with NantKwest’s off-the-shelf, PD-L1 tumor-targeted NK cells (NCT04050709) in a patient with metastatic pancreatic cancer who had relapsed after prior standard-of-care therapy. He anticipates “broad, universal treatments across tumor types, avoiding high-dose chemotherapy and radiation.”

The race to find a treatment for COVID-19  is in full swing as researchers in labs across the world attempt to unravel the unique properties of this disease, and find ways to neutralize it. To aid in the effort,  recovered patients in New Orleans — a national hotspot for infections — are participating in a

Motus GI got the green light to launch its Gen2 Pure-Vu System in Israel, the company announced April 7. The Israeli Ministry of Health cleared commercial sales of the Pure-Vu system just weeks after Motus GI gained CE mark approval. The Israeli medical device market is one of the largest in the Middle East.

One of the greatest challenges for pre-commercial biotech companies is consistently generating capital necessary for operating costs and for R&D of new products that provide value to stakeholders, both for investors and patients. At OSE Immunotherapeutics we implemented a business model that allows us to be one of the rare French biotech companies without commercial

Cue Biopharma has quickly evolved into a player in the T-cell space. The company was formed in 2015, a spin-out from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dan Passeri, the company CEO, has a background in oncology drug development and has worked at the National Cancer Institute. When he was asked to take over the

In Step 1 of the Phase III Atalante 1 trial, OSE Immunotherapeutics’ investigational agent Tedopi improved the 12-month survival rate over chemotherapy in patients with HLA-A2 positive non-small cell lung cancer who faile

Not long ago biotechnology entrepreneurs expected 2020 to be another flush year for their industry, with funds flowing into startups pursuing new medicines for cancer, rare diseases and other illnesses.

GigaGen announced that it is developing a recombinant polyclonal antibody therapy for the treatment of COVID-19, the pandemic coronavirus that has been sweeping the world and for which humans have no innate immunity. Based in South San Francisco, GigaGen spent the first seven years of its existence developing its single cell technology drug discovery and

Motus GI is assessing potential strategic partnership opportunities for the Pure-Vu System with established medical device companies and distributors with commercial operations across the EU. The CE Mark signifies that the Pure-Vu System meets the essential requirements of all relevant European Medical Device Directives. The directives outline the safety and performance requirements for medical devices

The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t likely to end soon. Instead, the crisis stage may continue for weeks or even months before business regains some semblance of normality. The good news is that while biotech companies have slowed their hiring initiatives, layoffs remain unlikely at this point. Instead, biotech companies are enhancing flexibility on nearly every front.

We also connected with North Carolina-based Aerami Therapuetics (formerly Dance Pharmaceuticals), which is working on a next-generation inhalable insulin product. Theirs is a fine mist aerosol formulation instead of a powder, delivered by their new inhaler device called AFINA. It will have built-in Bluetooth capability to track data and integrate with apps and platforms. The company has

Scynexis Inc., of Jersey City, N.J., is directing patients in a trial for its experimental fungal treatment to have blood drawn at home or alternative sites, and to receive the drug at home, after some patients missed appointments in Italy and other European countries, said Chief Executive Marco Taglietti.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is based in Pasadena, Calif., last week suspended enrollment in a liver-disease trial for at least four weeks because the study needs patients who are at risk for coronavirus infections and who must get a liver biopsy, which requires visiting a clinic, said Chief Executive Christopher Anzalone.

Everyone agrees that a vaccine will be essential to stop the global spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. But Ofer Levy, a physician-scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital, worries that vaccines being designed today are not going to be effective enough for the people who need them most: older adults.

A North Carolina biopharmaceutical company is developing a test for the novel coronavirus that can deliver results in just 30 minutes. Heat Biologics, based in Durham, has partnered with the University of Miami to design a test that can diagnose patients in just a fraction of the time compared to most other tests.

There are a few things from my interview with Chris Anzalone, Ph.D., CEO of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, that weren’t included in April’s printed article. But as I found them instructive and funny, I thought it a good idea to share via Life Science Leader’s online exclusive — Beyond The Printed Page.