The extent of the damage that will be caused if the U.S. overseas aid program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), is axed or has its funding cut, is laid out in an expert analysis published in The Lancet April 8, which estimates nearly 500,000 children could die from AIDS-related causes by 2030, while 1 million children will be infected with the virus.
“Men in general have been playing golf for a longer time – in those old boy networks we still haven’t tapped into.” It may seem far-fetched, but that is put forward as a reason for underinvestment in women’s health companies. The argument goes that women heading women’s health startups find it hard to raise money because their networks are weaker, making it harder to tap into investment networks.
“The nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated.” That statement in an open letter “to the American people” signed by 1,800 members of the U.S. National Academies, is made concrete in a list of 709 NIH grants – and counting – that have been axed since President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20.
“Men in general have been playing golf for a longer time – in those old boy networks we still haven’t tapped into.” It may seem far-fetched, but that is put forward as a reason for underinvestment in women’s health companies. The argument goes that women heading women’s health startups find it hard to raise money because their networks are weaker, making it harder to tap into investment networks.
The latest obesity contender, Antag Therapeutics A/S, has dosed the first participants in a phase I trial of a glucose-dependent insulinotrophic polypeptide (GIP) agonist it said will address key gaps in the current treatment options, not least the gastrointestinal side effects seen with GLP-1 agonists.
“The nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated.” That statement in an open letter “to the American people” signed by 1,800 members of the U.S. National Academies, is made concrete in a list of 709 NIH grants – and counting – that have been axed since President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20. A grant tracker, based on information published by the Department of Health and Human Sciences, and self-reported terminations from scientists, includes 88 vaccine-related projects, 45 cancer research grants and 231 awards made for HIV research.
Anocca AB has secured the first regulatory authorization in Europe for a CRISPR-Cas gene-edited T-cell receptor T-cell therapy trial, with the phase I/II study now due to start over the next three months at sites in Sweden, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.
French biotech Pep-Therapy SAS is in the midst of raising a €20 million (US$21.62 million) round and, at the same time, prospecting for potential partners after winning FDA orphan drug designation for its bifunctional peptide Pep-010 in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Pep-010 currently is moving to the conclusion of a phase Ib trial and the new money will fund phase II development.
The EMA has rejected the Alzheimer’s disease therapy Kisunla (donanemab) from Eli Lilly and Co., saying the benefits of the anti-amyloid antibody do not outweigh the risks of edema and hemorrhage in the brain, known as amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA).
The first disease modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s may have limited utility in some senses, but they will be a force for change, providing momentum and altering the way governments as payers, and health systems as carers, think about the disease.
