Ablynx NV, of Ghent, Belgium, will make an oral and poster presentation for arthritis candidate, ALX-0061, at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Madrid, Spain, showing a strong efficacy and safety profile for the drug in a Phase II study. Pooled data at 24 weeks of treatment demonstrated that ALX-0061 led to an improvement of 84 percent in ACR20 and 58 percent DAS28 remission. At all doses, the drug was well tolerated with no clinically relevant neutropenia, no clinically

earlier-stage programs

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., of Jerusalem, is expanding its respiratory pipeline with an agreement to acquire Microdose Therapeutx Inc., of Monmouth Junction, N.J., for $40 million, additional payments of up to $125 million upon achievement of regulatory and development milestones, plus sales-based milestones and tiered royalty payments upon commercialization of MDT-637 and an earlier stage asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medicine

earlier-stage programs

The spinout is being done before the buyout "for purely corporate-law and tax reasons," he said, adding that J&J was "interested in the breast cancer program, but we and they both agreed that it's tough to pay a lot of money right now, because it's in such an early stage of development

which is very early stage

Johnson & Johnson has jumped into the early stage development pool with both feet...With the opening of its California Innovation Center based in Menlo Park earlier this month, the New Brunswick, N.J.-based company has established regional innovation centers, incubators, and entrepreneurs in residence to get J&J closer to early stage products that might be licensed or acquired by the health-care giant

Two initiatives from different ends of the drug development spectrum are shining a bright light on nagging weaknesses in translational medicine and the urgent need to improve speed and efficiency in moving early stage discoveries into therapeutic candidates

Most survey respondents – both primarily out-licensers and primarily in-licensers – expect the number of deals for early stage assets to increase

The compound is currently undergoing early stage clinical trials for the treatment of leukemia and solid tumor cancer, with rights to all oncology applications licensed to its partner, Eisai Co...We are developing the PRISM library of compounds for early stage discovery based on biochemistry

The difference is that DRIVE would tend toward earlier-stage assets...At the same time, the UK Bioindustry Association reported that those grants are helping to pull in more investment for earlier-stage drug development work. (See BioWorld Today, March 12, 2013.) And earlier this year, London-based Glaxosmithkline plc launched Discovery Fast Track, a competition in which the winners will get access to GSK facilities and its compound libraries, with the possibility of becoming part of its academia

Some have found their niche with an acquire-develop-transfer development model, in-licensing late preclinical-stage drug candidates, developing them in house through early stage clinical studies, and out-licensing to larger partners to take the drug through to Phase III and beyond

UB Pharma is focusing on an earlier stage of the disposal pathway, when E3 ligases complete the process of labeling a protein with ubiquitin before it is transported to the proteasome...Sedgwick noted that other early stage ubiquitin programs are attracting investment, pointing to Cleave Biosciences Inc., of San Francisco, which in April raised $10 million in an extension of its Series A financing from new investor New Enterprise Associates, bringing its Series A total to $54 million

Because COSS generates revenues from partners, either on a fee-for-service basis or in up-front and milestone payments, Biovista can fund early stage development of drug candidates after their vetting by COSS

Those groups, along with individual investors, "really stepped in to fill the gap that's been left by the relatively small number of venture firms investing in early stage development," she told BioWorld Today...Approval for radiation use requires only animal testing and so far, Fox noted, "we've seen some very promising early stage data

Some have found their niche with an acquire-develop-transfer development model, in-licensing late preclinical-stage drug candidates, developing them in house through early stage clinical studies, and out-licensing to larger partners to take the drug through to Phase III and beyond

The group is expected to conduct early stage clinical evaluation of new antibacterial drugs and trials of approved antibacterials to reduce the risk of resistance

Against this backdrop, Godfrey intends to "stick to what we are good at," with pharma's increasing interest in earlier stage programs and the broad applicability of BergenBio's platform making that a viable route to commercialization of the technology.

Don't underestimate the power of nondilutive funding in the early stages of a company like Argen-x," CEO Tim Van Hauwermeiren told BioWorld International