Biotech companies raised a total of $13.3 billion in the first half of 2011, up a whopping 64 percent over the $8.1 billion raised in the first half of 2010, according to data from BioWorld Insight and BioWorld Snapshots. Read More
WASHINGTON – Amid criticism that the FDA has yet to strike the right balance between risk and benefit, the agency's Janet Woodcock gave a House subcommittee a sneak peak of proposed PDUFA V enhancements that would address those concerns. Read More
The thiazolidinediones are a class of diabetes drugs which include Avandia (rosiglitazone, GlaxoSmithKline plc) and Actos (pioglitazone, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.). Their intended effect is to sensitize tissues to insulin. But they are not without their drawbacks; Avandia's label, in fact, was revised last year to reflect concerns about the drug's cardiovascular side effects, and the drug is no longer on the market in Europe. (See BioWorld Today, Sept. 24, 2010.) Read More
A bevy of U.S.-based firms – notably Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass. – together with London-based Silence Therapeutics plc and, more recently, South Korean start-up BioMolecular Therapeutics, have been striving mightily to become first to market using RNAi-based platform technology to treat cancer. Read More
SpringLeaf Therapeutics Inc., of Boston, secured an additional $4 million in a second closing of its Series B financing from new investor Excel Venture Management, bringing the total round to $19 million. The company is developing a technology designed to expand the availability of biologic therapeutics. Read More
Marina Biotech Inc., of Bothell, Wash., said preclinical data showed a miRNA mimetic formulated using its liposomal-based delivery technology, SMARTICLES, demonstrated inhibition of tumor growth in an orthotopic liver tumor, as indicated by a decrease in systemic liver tumor biomarker alpha-feto protein and a decrease in tumor weight of more than 80 percent. Read More
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., of East Hanover, N.J., part of Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, said Phase III results showed that more than one-third of patients taking mTOR inhibitor Afinitor (everolimus) experienced a 50 percent or greater reduction in the size of their subependymal giant cell astrocytomas, noncancerous brain tumors associated with tuberous sclerosis. Data were presented at the TSC Research conference in Washington. Read More
Embryonic stem cells are synonymous with unrestricted potential. But researchers from Canadian McMaster University have discovered that while their potential may indeed be unrestricted in the sense that an embryonic stem cell can turn into any cell type, different embryonic stem cells differ in how easily they are able to turn into different cells. Read More
