Late last year, the Cell Therapy Catapult Center, a UK-based incubator for the cell therapy sector, determined that there is limited investment in the field from commercial backers, with big pharma observing and waiting, while SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) that are active lack the finance and breadth of resources needed to advance rapidly. (See BioWorld International, Dec. 12, 2012.) The center cited a lack of understanding within the pharma industry of what types of therapies are

It's a nice benchmark, if you will, for a first-in-class drug for dry eye," Garheng Kong, general partner at Menlo Park, Calif.-based Sofinnova and SARcode board member, told BioWorld International...Jessica Mann, spokeswoman for Dublin, Ireland-based Shire, told BioWorld International the company was attracted to the asset because of its product differentiation potential and because it targets an area with significant unmet need

has been used in other drugs, but never combined with ibuprofen before," Stoloff told BioWorld International

It's a nice benchmark, if you will, for a first-in-class drug for dry eye," Garheng Kong, general partner at Menlo Park, Calif.-based Sofinnova and SARcode board member, told BioWorld International...Jessica Mann, spokeswoman for Dublin, Ireland-based Shire, told BioWorld International the company was attracted to the asset because of its product differentiation potential and because it targets an area with significant unmet need

Hans-Dieter Volk, head of the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT) and director of the Institute for Medical Immunology in Berlin, told BioWorld International: "Our work opens the door to two developments

It's a number that would be of interest to the CHMP," Santhera CEO Thomas Meier told BioWorld International

investors," Justin Gover, CEO told BioWorld International

Ninety-five percent of them get acquired – that's just a given," Jan De Kerpel, analyst at KBC Securities in Brussels, Belgium, told BioWorld International

Matthew Berriman, a co-author of the paper, and group leader for parasite genomics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, told BioWorld International: "This work lays everything out for the entire tapeworm research community to mine, and provides a shortcut to drug discovery

Ravi Anand, chief medical officer at Milan, Italy-based Newron told BioWorld International

By the end, we hope to have a lead candidate, know the mode of action and be ready to consider clinical development," Thompson told BioWorld International

Company (Location) Funding Institution Amount (US$M) Type Details Date OCTOBER Addex Therapeutics SA (Geneva) Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation CHF0.7 ($0.748) Grant For development of allosteric modulators for neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases 10/3/12 Advanced Cancer Therapeutics Inc. (Louisville, Ky.) National Cancer Institute $0.158 Phase I SBIR grant To support the development of an inhibitor of glycolysis targeting 6-phosphofructo-2 kinase/fructose 2,6-biphosphatase 3

Ivan Ahel, group leader at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Manchester in the UK, told BioWorld International: "The question is, can we intentionally inhibit this protein and others that operate in the same pathway

When we approached him, his view was, 'This is a company with an excellent shot at commercializing cell therapies and that's what I want to do.' So he's completely committed to the cause," CEO Gregg Sando told BioWorld International...Cell Medica is expanding operations after raising $26.5 million in July 2012 in a mixture of public and private funding, including a grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, under which it is setting up a manufacturing facility and will run a

Mikael Bronnegard, CEO of Lund, Sweden-based NeuroVive, told BioWorld International that the company has yet to decide whether to take that forward itself or to seek a partner...handed back to Biotica almost two years ago. (See BioWorld International, Aug. 10, 2011.)

Ivan Ahel, group leader at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Manchester in the UK, told BioWorld International: "The question is, can we intentionally inhibit this protein and others that operate in the same pathway

The de-risking of the Biomedical Catalyst grants is attracting new investors," he told BioWorld International

There are certain elements that require protection, mainly related to personal patient data," an EMA spokeswoman told BioWorld International...I don't want to comment on that until the heads of argument are available," AbbVie spokesman Dirk Van Eeden told BioWorld International

handed back to Biotica almost two years ago. (See BioWorld International, Aug. 10, 2011.)