Researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science have weighed in on the question of whether female mammals have germ-line stem cells that are capable of generating new egg cells. Recent reports have questioned the long-held notion that female mammals are born with all the eggs they will ever possess, suggesting instead that they have stem cells capable of generating new eggs. Read More
Shares of Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. were down nearly 10 percent Friday following Thursday's after-market release of first-quarter earnings, which included news that the San Diego-based biotech is pulling its European marketing application for obesity drug Belviq (lorcaserin), though the bigger disappointment may be the ongoing delay in Belviq's U.S. launch. Read More
An existing partner with two other deals jumped aboard Ambrx Inc.'s site-specific, antibody drug conjugate (ADC) bandwagon, as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. provided $15 million up front plus funding for discovery and research, as well as milestone payments of that could total $97 million per oncology product emerging from the collaboration. Read More
Researchers have discovered that the TLR5 agonist Entolimod (CBLB502, Cleveland BioLabs Inc.), which is in development as a radioprotective agent, work primarily on receptors in the liver, and that it may be useful to fight liver metastases and, more broadly, as a liver-protective agent. Read More
LONDON – Galapagos NV has raised €53.9 million (US$70.7 million) in an over-subscribed placing in which it has tapped into the strong appetite U.S. investors currently have for biotechnology. Read More
• Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), of La Jolla, Calif., have reported successful preclinical tests of a new vaccine against heroin. The vaccine targets heroin and its psychoactive breakdown products in the bloodstream, preventing them from reaching the brain. The team designed the vaccine to elicit antibodies against not only heroin, but also 6-acetylmorphine and morphine. Read More
• Merck & Co. Inc., of Whitehouse Station, N.J., said the FDA has approved Liptruzet (ezetimibe and atorvastatin) tablets to treat elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in patients with primary or mixed hyperlipidemia as adjunctive therapy to diet when diet alone is not enough. Read More
• Nymox Pharmaceutical Corp., of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., completed patient enrollment in the company's final pivotal U.S. Phase III NX02-0018 study of NX-1207 for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Top-line results are expected in early 2014. Read More
