Many hair follicles that stop producing hairs contain quiescent stem cells, suggesting that waking up those cells could reverse hair loss. Researchers at Columbia University have discovered that the hair follicle stem cells are actively restrained by tissue macrophages. Read More
Micreos BV, of Hague, the Netherlands, said it secured €30 million (US$33.6 million) in funding to accelerate the development of its endolysin technology. The proceeds will support the clinical development program of its endolysin XZ-700 and the U.S. launch of its OTC Gladskin product for eczema. Read More
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, of Ingelheim, Germany, acquired ICD Therapeutics GmbH, of Berlin. The acquisition includes rights to ICD's Macrodel biologics delivery platform. Boehringer will employ that platform for the development of therapeutics in collaboration with Nanopet Pharma GmbH, of Berlin, a former shareholder of ICD. Further details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Read More
HYDERABAD, India – India has modified its rules to allow the government to waive clinical trials for some new drugs that are approved and marketed in countries specified by India's apex drug regulator, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Read More
Korean bioengineers and neurosurgeons have developed a novel patient-specific bioprinted tumor-on-a-chip model of glioblastoma, which might prove useful for identifying optimal treatments for patients resistant to standard first-line therapies. Read More
LONDON – Its geographical spread is said to be contained, but the number of cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has now passed 1,000, and the latest update shows a rise in new cases last week. Read More
It was a tough month for biopharmaceutical companies as a combination of clinical trial failures and drug pricing rhetoric ramping up in Washington kept investors sitting on their hands. As a result, the BioWorld Biopharmaceutical Index fell more than 6 percent in value, underperforming the general markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing March just below water and the Nasdaq Composite index recording an almost 2 percent gain in the same period. Read More
Gilead Sciences Inc. and Galapagos NV announced week 24 results for phase III studies Finch 1 and 3 of filgotinib in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), saying both studies reached their primary endpoints and that Finch 1 hit key secondary endpoints. Read More
DUBLIN – The March meeting of the EMA's Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP), the first to be held in its new home in Amsterdam, must have been a rather quiet affair. Just one new therapy was up for consideration – Bluebird Bio Inc.'s lentiglobin cell and gene therapy for beta-thalassemia – and it duly came out with a positive vote, which paves the way for a formal European Commission approval in the second quarter. The treatment, which comprises autologous CD34 cells transduced with a lentiviral vector, lentiglobin 3305, expressing a working copy of the beta-globin gene, will be marketed as Zynteglo. Read More
Astrazeneca plc, faced with what CEO Pascal Soriot recently called "probably the largest patent expiry in the industry as a proportion of the total company," has agreed to pay Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. up to $6.9 billion to jointly develop and commercialize an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) for the potential treatment of multiple HER2-expressing cancers. The deal for trastuzumab deruxtecan (DS-8201), which could have big benefits for both companies, includes $1.35 billion up front for Daiichi Sankyo. It could also yield a further $5.55 billion in milestone payments to the Tokyo-based big pharma. Read More
