After 15 years' effort, the world pioneer of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) therapy, Geron Inc., is abandoning the field and will be stopping recruitment to its ground-breaking Phase I acute spinal injury trial. Read More
Former executives and investors of Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc. reunited to launch a new start-up, Allena Pharmaceuticals Inc., and disclosed Wednesday a $15 million Series A round for work on nonsystemic oral protein therapeutics for metabolic and orphan diseases. Read More
LONDON – Mesoblast Ltd. has revived hopes for the potential use of stem cells to treat heart disease, delivering positive results in a 60-patient Phase II trial of Revascor in congestive heart failure, and significantly for the allogeneic cell therapy, reporting the product did not provoke any adverse immune responses. Read More
WASHINGTON – With yet another deadline looming this week, a congressional conference committee has come to terms on a "minibus" bill that includes a 2012 budget for the FDA of nearly $3.8 billion. Read More
CureVac GmbH entered a five-way, $33.1 million research collaboration to develop mRNA-based vaccines against undisclosed infectious disease pathogens, using its RNActive technology. Read More
• Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Lexington, Mass., said it inked a research collaboration with the National Institutes of Health's Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND) program to advance the firm's deuterium-modified praziquantel program as a potential treatment for schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms. Read More
• ProFibrix BV, of Leiden, the Netherlands, said its Phase II trial with Fibrocaps in liver resection surgery resulted in a 50 percent reduction in mean time to hemostasis – the primary endpoint – compared to active control. The study enrolled 56 patients. Read More
• Mirna Therapeutics Inc., of Austin, Texas, presented preclinical data showing that mimics of five tumor suppressor miRNAs, including miR-34 and let-7, significantly inhibited the growth of liver tumors compared to controls. The five miRNA mimics were complexed with a lipid nanoparticle delivery formulation and were found to be neither toxic nor immunostimulatory. Additional preclinical work is ongoing. Read More
