- January 16, 2020
Bay Area Researchers Key on Blood Plasma to Fight Age-Related Diseases
A year ago, the FDA issued a warning to consumers to stay away from unscrupulous clinics that offered blood taken from young people to use as an anti-aging remedy. But one Bay Area biotech company is actually gathering the scientific evidence and conducting well-designed studies, under the approval of the FDA.
- January 16, 2020
Reversing Disease Signals by The Bio Report
Ben Zeskind likens Immuneering’s platform technology to noise-cancelling headphones. Infact, the company’s use of the term “Disease Cancelling Technology” speaks directly to that. The approach, he says, allows the company to build a pipeline of drug candidate that address aspects of disease that have eluded tradition drug development approaches. We spoke Zeskind, CEO of Immuneering, about the company’s evolution from its roots in bioinformatics, its movement into drug development, and how its proprietary platform technology works.
- January 15, 2020
Synaptive Medical updates Modus V surgical microscope
Synaptive Medical announced that its U.S. and Canadian Modus V robotic digital microscope now includes updates such as additional 3D visualization and voice-activated control. The Modus V is a robotically controlled digital microscope used as part of Synaptive’s BrightMatter surgical suite designed for less invasive, patient-specific approaches in complex cranial procedures.
- January 13, 2020
NantKwest Gains 91% After Promising Cancer Result
NantKwest Inc. shares rose by a record after the company’s CEO said its experimental cancer therapy had shown a dramatic result in one patient with pancreatic cancer. In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Chief Executive Office Patrick Soon-Shiong said one patient with metastatic pancreatic cancer had their tumors eradicated after treatment with the company’s experimental immune-system-based therapy. The patient had previously been treated unsuccessfully, and received the drug as a compassionate measure for people without other treatment options.
- January 13, 2020
Seeking structural endpoints for OA
Not everyone agrees that MRI is necessary to characterize joint structure. Samumed’s Yazici argued that if a molecule has a meaningful effect size, X-ray should be more than suitable for measuring the benefit. “In RA, if you look at all the approval packages, there’s nothing about MRIs. It is all X-rays because if you have a drug that has enough efficacy, you can see it on the X-ray,” he said.
- January 13, 2020
Targeting Specific Proteins to Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer with Usama Malik Immunomedics
Usama Malik, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer, Immunomedics discusses the challenges of developing effective medicines for people with triple negative breast cancer as well as Immunomedics’ development of antibody-drug conjugates, directed therapies which have potential to provide new options for those with hard to treat cancers.
- January 13, 2020
Lyme Disease Vaccine Could Be Ready In 4 to 5 Years
Valneva’s has made a name for itself by developing vaccines for in-demand illnesses and now the biotech company has its eyes set on Lyme disease. Their Lyme disease vaccine prototype, VLA15 is currently in Phase 2 developments and is being tested on more than 800 people to measure both efficacy and safety. Although difficult to predict, Valneva’s CEO, Thomas Lingelbach told Forbes that he expected the vaccine to be completed in the next few years.
- January 11, 2020
Nurix, Sanofi in protein degradation deal
Nurix Therapeutics Inc. and Sanofi partnered to develop protein degradation therapies for three targets and multiple diseases. Sanofi, which has an option to license compounds for two additional targets, has exclusive rights to the candidates and is responsible for clinical development and commercialization. Nurix, which has a co-development and co-promotion option to up to two products in the U.S., will receive an upfront payment of $55 million and is eligible for $2.5 billion in milestones, plus royalties
