The rising tide of digital attacks touching politics, finance and retail also poses significant threats for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. During a Thursday webinar, attorneys at King & Spalding LLP counseled that internal identification of "crown jewel" trade secrets, rigorous protection plans and an at-ready stance for incident response to thefts should form the core of corporate game plans. Read More
Promethera Biosciences SA, of Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium, raised €10 million (US$11 million) in a series C extension that included major existing shareholders Vesalius Biocapital, SRIW, Fund+, MGI Global Fund (Mitsui & Co.), Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and SMS Investments. Read More
Acucela Inc., of Seattle, said the agreement regarding its proposed triangular merger was adopted by shareholders. Upon completion of the merger, Kubota Pharmaceutical Holdings Co. Ltd. will become a publicly listed Japanese holding company. Read More
Helocyte Inc., of New York, and the City of Hope research and cancer treatment center, said data from the phase I trial of Helocyte's Triplex vaccine were published online in Blood. Read More
Heat-shock proteins (Hsps) are typically intracellular chaperone proteins that help other proteins fold. But researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute have discovered an extracellular role for Hsp60 in wound healing. Read More
NEW DELHI – While India's tuberculosis (TB) drug industry is generally geared to meet the country's enormous TB burden, which is mainly due to poor patient compliance and multidrug resistance, it is hampered by limited access to high-risk funding and hurdles in regulatory approval. Read More
SAO PAULO, Brazil – Brazilian regulators should move quickly to improve the processes involved in clinical trials in the country, said industry stakeholders gathered for the annual BIO Latin America conference. Read More
SAO PAULO, Brazil – Brazil's Butantan Institute is moving forward with the development of a Zika vaccine, which could be ready for the market by the end of next year or early 2018. Read More
It was hardly rocket science that Jupiter moon-named Ganymed Pharmaceuticals AG's claudin 18.2-targeting antibody would draw big pharma's top cancer players to the table. And Astellas Pharma Inc.'s potential $1.4 billion takeover, with €422 million (US$461.3 million) up front plus another €860 million if progress milestones are met, gets not only the IMAB362 antibody but also Claudetect 18.2. Read More
Just ahead of the PDUFA date assigned to sarilumab, an end-of-the-week "oof" moment came for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Sanofi SA in the form of a complete response letter Friday regarding the BLA for their interleukin-6 antibody to treat adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Read More
LONDON – A study by U.K. academics shows that orphan drug legislation designed to incentivize investment in treatments for rare diseases is generating products so profitable that investment in broader indications is being stifled. Read More
Worries over slowing global sales of Abbvie Inc.'s largest product, Humira (adalimumab), and fears about the outlook for Amgen Inc.'s Enbrel (etanercept) dimmed the shine on shares of both companies by Friday's close, shaving 6.3 percent from Abbvie shares (NYSE:ABBV) and pushing Amgen shares (NASDAQ:AMGN) shares down 9.6 percent. Read More
Fatty liver is an exception to the rule that early intervention is best. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the leading cause of liver failure. Read More