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
Former executives and investors of Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc. reunited to launch a new start-up, Allena Pharmaceuticals Inc., and disclosed Wednesday a $15 million Series A round for work on nonsystemic oral protein therapeutics for metabolic and orphan diseases. 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
WASHINGTON With yet another deadline looming this week, a congressional conference committee has come to terms on a "minibus" bill that includes a 2012 budget for the FDA of nearly $3.8 billion. 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
Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass., said it inked a research collaboration with the National Institutes of Health's Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program to advance the firm's deuterium-modified praziquantel program as a potential treatment for schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms. Read More
ProFibrix BV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, said its Phase II trial with Fibrocaps in liver resection surgery resulted in a 50 percent reduction in mean time to hemostasis the primary endpoint compared to active control. The study enrolled 56 patients. Read More
Mirna Therapeutics Inc., of Austin, Texas, presented preclinical data showing that mimics of five tumor suppressor miRNAs, including miR-34 and let-7, significantly inhibited the growth of liver tumors compared to controls. The five miRNA mimics were complexed with a lipid nanoparticle delivery formulation and were found to be neither toxic nor immunostimulatory. Additional preclinical work is ongoing. Read More