Olivia Vizier

A cell-targeting sequencing method developed at Rockefeller University is being used to find drug targets for neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Nuclear enriched transcript sort sequencings (NETSseq) is a sample preparation method that uses antibodies or RNA probes to latch on to the nuclei of pre-determined cells of interest, capturing pools of […]

A new type of checkpoint inhibitor from an Israeli biotech company called Compugen is showing early signs of halting tumor growth in patients with advanced cancer, offering hope that more patients might one day benefit from cancer immunotherapy.

Immunomedics (IMMU) isn’t concerned the coronavirus pandemic could slow its launch of a new breast cancer treatment, an executive said Thursday, as IMMU stock rocketed on the approval.

Despite oncology being a focus of pharmaceutical R&D for decades, some cancers remain difficult to treat. Drug Target Review’s Hannah Balfour spoke with Hans Klingemann, MD, PhD, Vice President of R&D at NantKwest, a clinical stage immunotherapy company, to find out how effective treatments against traditionally treatment-refractory cancers, like pancreatic cancers and triple-negative breast cancers, can be developed.

Cue Biopharma forged a clinical collaboration with Merck to combine its lead candidate CUE-101 with Merck‘s Keytruda as a first-line treatment for HPV+ recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer.

GV, Bill Gates and Foresight Capital joined three existing investors in Cerevance’s recent Series B round, which closed with $45m raised. The ability of this brain disease-focused drug discovery company to close a lucrative round with such high-profile investors amid the Covid-19 pandemic is impressive, but how will the new financing impact the Cerevance’s future?

The question James E. Brown, President & CEO, DURECT asked of CDMOs when he founded the company in 1998 remains perfectly operational. “‘Who are they?’ is the most important question for me regarding our external partners,” he tells me from his corporate headquarters in Cupertino, CA.

San Diego biotech company CalciMedica has partnered with two Midwestern hospitals to test a drug designed to help COVID-19 patients who are battling severe pneumonia.

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.