HAMBURG, Germany – Despite the biotech industry's recent record-breaking run in terms of fundraising and new drug approvals, the ongoing drug pricing controversy is acting as a drag on biotechnology investment. Since the debate started to heat up about four years ago, the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index is down 14%, while the S&P 500 Index is up by 46% during the same period, David Thomas, vice president, industry research at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), told delegates attending the opening plenary session at BIO-Europe. "Something is clearly holding back investors in our space," he said.
PARIS – A French research consortium bringing together the firm Cap Gemini SE, the Traumabase (traumabase.eu) network, the AP-HP group of 39 teaching hospitals in the Paris region, the École Polytechnique, the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), is developing the first AI decision-making tool for managing patients with severe trauma in their first 24 hours.
LONDON – The EU's next large-scale public-private research partnership in health is taking shape and due for launch at the start of 2021, succeeding the current €3.6 billion (US$4 billion) Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 (IMI2).
LONDON – The EU's next large-scale public-private research partnership in health is taking shape and due for launch at the start of 2021, succeeding the current €3.6 billion (US$4 billion) Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 (IMI2). The new program, the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), will see the scope of joint research among the industry, academics and SMEs expand beyond pharmaceuticals, to include medical technology, biotech, digital health and vaccines.
LONDON – The Swiss headquarter operations of Arvelle Therapeutics GmbH are taking shape as the company awaits the outcome later this month of the FDA's deliberations on its in-licensed asset, cenobamate, and prepares to apply for EMA approval for the novel epilepsy treatment in the first half of 2020.
PARIS – Myriade SAS reported the commercial launch of its Videodrop technology at the second congress of the French Society of Extracellular Vesicles (FSEV) held in October in Nantes. This new nanoscale imaging technique captures all nanoparticles ranging from 30 nm to 10 μm in a droplet of solution (5-10μl volume), without initial data labeling.
LONDON – The U.K. government told the industry to maintain its readiness for a no-deal Brexit Tuesday, as it was forced to ask the EU for another extension after failing to get a revised withdrawal bill through Parliament.
LONDON – Pfizer Inc. is taking further steps to distinguish its third-generation anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, Lorbrena, from the rest of the field, funding a pan-European trial that will use liquid biopsies to track the resistance profile of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC).
LONDON – A U.K. national plan to upgrade population cancer screening will see greater adoption of genomics and biomarker-based testing, and the use of artificial intelligence to help interpret results. There will be moves to make it easier to pilot and adopt novel diagnostics and to do more targeted screening to identify and follow people who are shown to be at greater risk of developing specific types of cancer.
DUBLIN – Merck & Co. Inc. is in line to obtain conditional marketing authorization from the European Union for its live attenuated vaccine for preventing Ebola virus infection, V920 Ebola Zaire vaccine (rVSVDG-ZEBOV-GP live), following a positive recommendation for approval from the EMA's Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) at its October meeting last week. Formal approval should follow within 67 days, after which the Kenilworth, N.J.-based pharma would market the vaccine as Ervebo.
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