Alkermes Inc., of Dublin, Ireland, said top-line data from a Phase II study showed that ALKS 5461 , a drug in development to treat patients who have an inadequate response to standard therapies for clinical depression, significantly reduced depressive symptoms across a range of standard measures, including the study's primary outcome measure, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (p = 0.026), the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Scale (p = 0.004) and the Clinical Global Impression-Severity Scale (p

Sunshine Biopharma Inc., of Montreal, said it started negotiations with several contract manufacturing organizations for the GMP manufacturing of 1 kg of Adva-27a, its drug in development for treating breast cancer that has become resistant to existing therapeutics

Founded in 2007, Auven is structured as a private equity fund that also operates as a drug development company

Zhangjiang Biotech Pharmaceutical Base will be able to consult with HUYA's experts in drug development and commercialization, while HUYA will have the first opportunity to evaluate certain R&D projects conducted at the base

QIDP designation is under the GAIN Act included in the 2012-passed FDASIA legislation and is designed to provide drug development with incentives for creating new antibacterial and antifungal drugs

Domainex Ltd., of Cambridge, UK, is seeking to raise £1.5 million (US$2.32 million) to advance its kinase-based drug development programs for TBK1/KKe and epigenetics targets

Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office in London and partner AstraZeneca plc, of London, opened a three-armed study testing AZD0424 in a Phase I trial expected to recruit up to 30 patients, initially across all solid tumor types

Chris McKay, of McTear Williams & Wood, the administrator, said, "We became involved late last year after the company hit cash flow problems resulting from a licensing dispute with a drug development partner

Velocity Pharmaceutical Development LLC, of South San Francisco, entered a licensing agreement with EuMederis Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, to pursue a drug development program using EuMederis' EuPort technology, which optimizes the pharmaceutical properties of peptide drugs

BIT225 is designed to specifically target HIV in reservoir cells to stop the ongoing cycle of infection in the body...Those and other data were presented at the American Society of Hematology meeting in Atlanta

The new company will seek venture funding for small-molecule drug development in the field of cancer, and will make use of technology from the University of Queensland

SK Biopharmaceuticals, of Seoul, South Korea, said YKP10811, its treatment for chronic idiopathic constipation, was awarded funding from the Korea Drug Development Fund to support clinical development for the next two years...The Korea Drug Development Fund was established in September 2011 with assets of $1 billion to develop at least 10 new drugs by 2020

Gentium SpA, of Villa Guardia, Italy, inked an agreement with the National University Corporation Hamamatsu University School of Medicine (HUSM), Fukushima Medical University and LINK Healthcare to provide drug and technical support to a clinical trial of defibrotide, a drug in development for veno-occlusive disease, in healthy adults

Gentium SpA., of Villa Guardia, Italy, inked an agreement with the National University Corporation Hamamatsu University School of Medicine (HUSM), Fukushima Medical University and LINK Healthcare to provide drug and technical support to a clinical trial of defibrotide, a drug in development for veno-occlusive disease, in healthy adults

Lorus Therapeutics Inc., of Toronto, partnered with Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office (DDO) and the charity's commercial arm, Cancer Research Technology, to move a cancer treatment into clinical testing

Earlier this year, Janssen and nine other companies joined forces to create TransCelerate BioPharma Inc., an initiative aimed at identifying and overcoming common drug development challenges to improve the quality of clinical studies. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 26, 2012

NanoViricides Inc., of West Haven, Conn., signed an agreement with Bioanalytical Systems Inc., of West Lafayette, Ind., to conduct drug development studies required to submit investigational new drug (IND) applications to the FDA for its nanoviricides drug candidates

The Drug Development Office at London-based Cancer Research UK is partnering with the UK's National Institute for Health Research and Imperial College London to conduct a Phase IIa trial of AZD4547, from AstraZeneca plc, of London, in combination with existing therapies, to treat postmenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer who are not responding to standard treatment

Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Inc., of Coral Gables, Fla., sublicensed rights to Firdapse (amifampridine), a drug in development for Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, from BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., of Novato, Calif