Decades of improvement in drug discovery technology have failed to improve productivity, and with the patent cliff now at hand, some pharma firms are adopting a back-to-basics approach. When it comes to getting back to basics, Traditional Chinese Medicine is "about as low-tech as it comes," said David Kolb, founder and CEO of Insero Health Inc. Read More
Researchers at Rockefeller University have identified a new way in which some influenza virus strains fight off the host immune response. In the H3N2 strain, a common seasonal flu strain, the tail of the NS1 protein has striking sequence similarities to a protein that also happens to be named H3 – the host protein histone H3. Read More
Privately held biotech PhenoMatriX Inc. (PMX) isn't yet ready for prime time, and company president and CEO Kosta Steliou is loath to suggest a commercialization timetable. Read More
• ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Inc., of Woodland Hills, Calif., licensed intellectual property from the University of Pittsburgh covering EphA2, a tyrosine kinase receptor expressed by ovarian cancer and other advanced and metastatic malignancies. Read More
• Euthymics Bioscience Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said it started a Phase I trial of EB-1020, a next-generation drug in development for treating adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder aimed at carrying a low risk of drug abuse liability. Read More
• Enterome Bioscience, of Paris, raised €5 million (US$6.6 million) in a Series A round, with Seventure Partners and Lundbeckfond Ventures participating as co-lead investors. Read More
• GlaxoSmithKline plc, of London, said it plans to invest more than £500 million (US$790.9 million) in its UK manufacturing sites to increase production of key active ingredients for its pharmaceutical products and vaccines. The company said it will build a £350 million biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility at Ulverston, Cumbria, and invest more than £100 million across two manufacturing sites in Scotland. Read More
• Almirall SA, of Barcelona, Spain, said the European Respiratory Journal published full results of ATTAIN (Aclidinium To Treat Airway obstruction In COPD patieNts), a six-month pivotal study comparing the efficacy and safety of twice-daily inhaled aclidinium (200 mcg and 400 mcg) against placebo in patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Read More
