LONDON – Genkyotex SA has raised CHF25 million (US$26 million) as an extension to its Series C, with the existing investors all following on to fund Phase II development of the lead compound, GKT137831 in diabetic nephropathy. Read More
It's no secret that high hopes ride on the development of combination drugs. But when trying to develop such combinations, "the details become exponentially more complex," Omid Farokhzad told BioWorld Today. Read More
In the biotech world, zinc finger nucleases got their start as gene correction tool. But their ability to precisely target and cut specific DNA sequences could be used for other purposes as well, and two recent papers reported methodological advances that could ultimately expand the uses of the technology. Read More
LONDON – The asthma treatment Flutiform finally won the seal of the European Commission last week, more than 12 years after SkyePharma plc set its sights on what it thought would be the relatively straightforward development of a combination product based on two marketed drugs. Read More
• R-Pharm, of Moscow, recently inked a deal with Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based Merck & Co. Inc. for rights to an investigational hepatitis C virus (HCV) once-daily protease inhibitor, narlaprevir. Under the terms, R-Pharm gains the right to develop and commercialize narlaprevir in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States in exchange for an undisclosed up-front payment and royalties. Read More
• Eli Lilly and Co., of Indianapolis, said it has met the FDA's requirements for pediatric exclusivity for Cymbalta (duloxetine HCl), gaining an additional six months of U.S. market exclusivity for the drug, which now will expire in December 2013. Read More
Scientists from the Australian Garvan Institute of Medical Research have developed what they believe is a broadly applicable strategy for making antibodies less prone to aggregate. Read More
