LONDON – Members of the €1.2 billion (US$1.63 billion) Human Brain Project (HBP) have hit out at criticisms of the project's scientific objectives and governance made by prominent neuroscientists, saying the protest "divides rather than unifies our efforts to understand the brain." Read More
The end of a two-part hearing on ways to speed clinical trials and include more diverse populations without introducing risk or mistakes included testimony by Alkermes plc CEO Richard Pops, who used his five minutes to propose a new framework for patients' help with trials that he said "would fundamentally transform the way we approach these [drug] development programs." Read More
Just five months after raising about $94.8 million in a well-received initial public offering (IPO), Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc. has priced a new follow-on offering expected to raise an additional $60.6 million to carry a new pivotal trial of its lead candidate, SD-809 (dutetrabenazine), in the movement disorder tardive dyskinesia and to support the company through at least the second quarter of 2016. Read More
Successful organ transplantation starts with a race against time. When a donor organ becomes available, the current way to keep it going long enough for it to reach its lucky next owner is quite simple. It is flushed with a solution that was developed at the University of Wisconsin – hence its name, UW solution – and put on ice. Read More
Suzhou Alphamab Co. Ltd. is among the new generation of Chinese biopharmas moving rapidly along the evolutionary curve from contract research activities such as high-throughput screening, analytical biology and process development to the construction of a pipeline of biosimilars and, most recently, the development of novel compounds directed at cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases. Read More
Adimab LLC is not the typical biotech. It's a venture-backed, yet profitable company that has made its name as a partner of choice for antibody drug discovery. In fact, Adimab recently inked a deal for its 50th program, which is particularly impressive given that the firm only began partnering activities about five years ago. Read More
Two members of the Senate Finance committee sent a letter to Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead Sciences Inc. questioning the price tag for hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug Sovaldi (sofosbuvir), which costs more than $80,000 for a course of treatment – about $1,000 per pill. Read More
Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc., of New York and Petach Tikvah, Israel, said details of a preclinical study describing the safety of single and repeated intramuscular administration of Nurown, its mesenchymal stem cells, have been published in Clinical and Translational Medicine. Read More
Genticel SA, of Toulouse, France, said the phase II RHEIA-VAC (Research on HPV Eradication In Adults by VACcination) study reached the halfway mark in patient enrollment, with all 39 sites across seven countries in Europe fully operational. Read More
Shire plc, of Dublin, confirmed Friday that it held a meeting with representatives from Abbvie Inc., of North Chicago, and said a further update will be made when appropriate. Read More
Sanofi SA, of Paris, said its Sanofi Pasteur vaccines division reported that detailed results of its first landmark phase III dengue vaccine efficacy study conducted in five countries in Asia have been published in The Lancet. Read More
