LONDON – The U.K. intends to take the positives from its response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a blueprint for developing treatments for a range of other diseases and the basis for a new 10-year strategy for the life sciences.
LONDON – Final results of the community pilot in Liverpool, U.K., that used the controversial Innova Medical Group Inc. lateral flow device to test all comers for COVID-19, show new cases fell by 21% compared to other areas of the U.K., because infections were detected early and people quarantined sooner.
LONDON – Nerre Therapeutics Ltd. will have another go at delivering proof of efficacy for its chronic cough treatment, after raising £20 million (US$27.6 million) in a series B2 round.
DUBLIN – Bacteriophage, like other viruses, can be viewed as complex molecular machines with two essential functions: infection and replication. The first involves the efficient injection into the host cell of their genomic payload; the second involves hijacking the host’s nucleic acid replication machinery to generate the functional and structural proteins needed to give rise to progeny viruses.
Getting cell therapies to work against solid tumors is proving difficult – but two biopharma firms have begun early-stage studies with technologies that aim to crack this tough nut. Gadeta B.V. and Apeiron Biologics AG are using two different approaches to cell therapy that they hope will be effective against tough-to-treat solid tumors.
PARIS – One year on from launch, Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen (DiGA), or digital health applications, are gaining widespread acceptance in Germany. Digital therapeutics (DTx) have been available since 2020 to the 73 million people in Germany covered by public health.
Compass Pathways Ltd. has joined with a U.K. hospital and an academic establishment to research the role of psychedelic medicine in new models of mental health care. The London-based company signed a memorandum of understanding with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London to launch the project.
DUBLIN – Investment in European biotechnology slowed dramatically during the second quarter, as the funding frenzy of the first three months of the year gave way to a very solid but a less spectacular performance. Collectively, European firms engaged in drug discovery and development raised $3.358 billion in disclosed transactions during the second quarter, down 46% from the $6.195 billion raised during the first quarter.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidance for ethics and governance for artificial intelligence (AI) in health discusses several issues regarding regulation, including the question of transparency for the algorithm’s source code. The WHO paper is not prescriptive on this and several other issues, however, raising the prospect that regulatory entities will not be discouraged from adopting policies that run afoul of intellectual property concerns and thus impede advances in AI.
Sequana Medical NV reported positive results from the second interim analysis of its POSEIDON pivotal study evaluating the Alfapump for the treatment of recurrent or refractory ascites due to liver cirrhosis. These latest results, from 26 patients in the roll-in cohort, affirm earlier interim data showing high scores on all primary endpoints and continued improvement in quality of life.
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