The complement system is designed to kill pathogens through a signal cascade that results in cell lysis, removal of the pathogens through phagocytosis, and alerting other immune system cells to help with infections. Signals come from three different pathways – classical, lectin and alternative – culminating at the C3 protein of the cascade.

The complement system is designed to kill pathogens through a signal cascade that results in cell lysis, removal of the pathogens through phagocytosis, and alerting other immune system cells to help with infections. Signals come from three different pathways – classical, lectin and alternative – culminating at the C3 protein of the cascade.

SAN DIEGO – When designing phase II proof of concept trials, companies want to maximize the chance of seeing a signal. Avoiding so-called type III errors – trials that would have been successful but were never performed – leads to a "no drug left behind" mentality, Cong Chen, director of biostatistics and research decision science at Merck & Co. Inc. told the audience during a panel at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting last week.

Baseball parks are opening for business this week, but the biotech industry has already hit a grand slam with 26 biotechs raising $1.77 billion through initial public offerings (IPOs) on U.S. exchanges in the first quarter.

With hepatitis C treatments largely figured out, biotechs and investors have turned to the newest liver disease without a treatment: nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

SAN DIEGO – To stimulate innovation, pharmaceutical companies have to reinvent themselves, looking outside their walls for early stage compounds.

SAN DIEGO – As the window for companies going public has swung wide open and values across the industry have risen, it’s becoming harder for companies to get deals done.

Orphan-drug specialist, Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals Inc. is developing a new class of drugs: live biotherapeutics. As the name implies, Sigma-Tau’s drug candidate, STP206, is a live organism used to repopulate patients’ gastrointestinal tracks.

Last week, Cambridge, Mass.-based Aveo Oncology and Astellas Pharma Inc., of Tokyo, announced that they were discontinuing a Phase II trial testing tivozanib in patients with locally recurrent or metastatic triple negative breast cancer due to insufficient enrollment.