SAN FRANCISCO – The global recession left the U.S. and much of the rest of the world strapped for cash, with both harsh venture and capital markets taking their toll on the biotech sector. But in China, the economic situation is "really kind of the reverse," noted Greg Scott, founder and president of ChinaBio LLC. Read More
SAN FRANCISCO – The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is always fun, frenetic and a little overwhelming. This year was no different – unless you count the ire of innocent tourists and locals who were turned away from conference headquarters at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. Here, enjoy a few parting shots from members of the BioWorld Today staff who covered the biotech industry's annual lollapalooza. Read More
Privately held Nuron Biotech Inc. hooked a big fish for its first licensing deal. The Exton, Pa.-based company signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. (MTPC), of Osaka, Japan, to commercialize its HibTiter vaccine (Haemophilus b conjugate vaccine [diphtheria CRM197 protein conjugate]) in Japan, both as a single entity and for combination product use. Read More
BioWorld's offices will be closed Monday, Jan. 16, in observance of the Martin Luther King Day holiday in the U.S. No issues will be published that day. Read More
SAN FRANCISCO – On the surface, the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference seems much changed since its inception 30 years ago: In 1983, less than 100 investors gathered for presentations by 21 companies, while this year, more than 8,000 attendees turned out for nearly 400 presentations. Read More
• PharmaGap Inc., of Ottawa, Ontario, completed an offering of 1,010,777 stock units for $0.07 each, for gross proceeds of $70,774. Each unit holds one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase a share of common stock at $0.10 within three years. Read More
• NovAliX SAS, of Strasbourg, France, is partnering with Teijin Pharma Ltd., of Tokyo, to develop drug candidates against multiple targets across different therapeutic areas. Under the collaboration, NovAliX will use its Graffinity SPR-based screening technology to identify novel chemotypes and then engage its nano-MS technology to further characterize selected small-molecule hit structures. Read More
• Genethon, the Evry, France-based research lab created by the French Muscular Dystrophy Association, reported that promising results of a Phase I trial of gene therapy for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2C have been published in Brain. The primary objective of the trial, which started in 2006, was to evaluate the safety of local injection of increasing doses of an adeno-associated virus vector harboring a "healthy" copy of the gene for gamma-sarcoglycan, the defective protein involved in the disease. Secondary objectives included assessing local and systemic immune reactions, as well as the quality of gene transfer in terms of efficacy, expression and distribution. Read More
