• Aeolus Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Mission Viejo, Calif., reported preliminary results from a pilot study of AEOL 10150 and G-CSF drug Neupogen (filgrastim, Amgen Inc.), which confirmed that AEOL 10150 does not interfere with the positive effects of Neupogen on the hematopoietic syndrome of acute radiation syndrome. The two products in combination were safe and well tolerated. Read More
• Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., formed a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, focused on the use of Alnylam's VaxiRNA technology to produce certain GSK vaccine products. VaxiRNA is an RNAi technology for the enhanced production of viruses used to manufacture vaccine products. The GSK collaboration is focused initially on influenza vaccine production in cell culture systems, with an option for applications in two additional vaccine products. Read More
DUSSELDORF, Germany – Buoyed by Monday's series of workshops on the dos and don'ts of finding partners and striking deals (and learning to live with them afterward), companies attending BIO-Europe Fall 2011 rolled up their sleeves Tuesday and started in on what they had really come for: bare knuckle partnering. With 14,661 scheduled one-to-one meetings – and countless more unscheduled, impromptu exchanges – it's unlikely that any aspect of biotechnology will not receive an airing at this event. Read More
Cancer is famous (and difficult to treat) because of the dizzying variation of genetic alterations that can cause it – tumors can acquire tens of thousands of mutations over the course of an individual patient's disease.Unfortunately, the cancer cell lines that are still one of the main research tools to study those genes do not illustrate the same pattern of gene expression as the cancers from which they are derived. That's the conclusion of a study published this week by scientists from the National Cancer Institute.The experiments, which were published in the Oct. Read More
The next generation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) therapies moved a step closer to the corner drugstore with the initiation of Pharmasset Inc.'s pivotal Phase III studies of the HCV nucleotide analogue PSI-7977. The program will evaluate a 12-week, all-oral, interferon-free regimen of PSI-7977 and ribavirin in three groups of patients with HCV, independent of viral genotype or their ability to take interferon therapy.The Princeton, N.J.-based company expects to submit data from the three Phase III trials in the second half of 2013, both in the U.S. Read More
Exelixis Inc.'s stock plummeted 40.2 percent Tuesday following the South San Francisco biotech's announcement that it was unable to secure a special protocol assessment (SPA) from the FDA for its pivotal Phase III XL184-306 trial of cabozantinib (cabo) in end-stage castrate resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).Exelixis said it has stopped pursuing the SPA and plans to initiate the '306 trial by the end of 2011 with pain as the primary efficacy endpoint, to be followed in the first half of 2012 by the Phase III XL184-307 trial to evaluate overall survival time. Read More
