After 15 years' effort, the world pioneer of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) therapy, Geron Inc., is abandoning the field and will be stopping recruitment to its ground-breaking Phase I acute spinal injury trial. Read More
LONDON – Mesoblast Ltd. has revived hopes for the potential use of stem cells to treat heart disease, delivering positive results in a 60-patient Phase II trial of Revascor in congestive heart failure, and significantly for the allogeneic cell therapy, reporting the product did not provoke any adverse immune responses. Read More
LONDON – The structure of a toxin produced by a bacterium that causes the tropical disease melioidosis has been solved, raising hopes that it may one day be possible to develop an inhibitor of the toxin, which could slow the progression of the disease. Read More
CureVac GmbH entered a five-way, $33.1 million research collaboration to develop mRNA-based vaccines against undisclosed infectious disease pathogens, using its RNActive technology. Read More
Affiris AG raised €25 million (US$34 million) in new equity funding and could land another €30 million from the same investors, to take forward its pipeline of clinical and preclinical peptide-based therapeutic vaccine candidates, which are in development for a range of neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. Read More
DUBLIN, Ireland – Genable Technologies Ltd. raised €5 million (US$6.8) million in a Series B financing round to take forward a mutation-independent gene therapy approach for treating an autosomal-dominant form of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Read More
• Avraham Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Jerusalem, raised $3 million from Yissum Research Development Co. Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and other investors. The funding will be used for an ongoing Phase II trial of ladostigil in Alzheimer's disease and a planned study of the drug in mild cognitive impairment. Ladostigil is a cholinesterase and brain-selective monoamine oxidase inhibitor. Read More
