Autoimmune antibodies can ravage the body – or not: Many individuals have measurable autoantibodies for years before the onset of clinical symptoms, and even once clinical disease is present, antibody titers do not correlate with disease severity. Read More

Cognition Therapeutics Inc., of Pittsburgh, said the first Alzheimer’s patient was dosed in a phase Ib trial of CT1812, an orally available, small molecule that displaces bound amyloid beta oligomers and inhibits binding of amyloid beta oligomers to the receptor complex, in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Read More

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said pursuant to a global alliance inked in January 2014, Paris-based Sanofi SA’s Genzyme unit elected to opt in to co-develop and co-commercialize fitusiran, an RNAi therapeutic for the treatment of hemophilia and rare bleeding disorders (RBD), in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe. Read More

Pharming Group N.V., of Leiden, the Netherlands, said it has made significant progress with financing toward completion of the transaction with subsidiaries of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., of Laval, Quebec, to acquire the commercialization rights to its own product Ruconest in North America. Read More

Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. reported that its sole candidate – resunab – added to standard-of-care (SOC) immunosuppressive drugs, out-performed a placebo with SOC during a phase II trial in patients with diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis, an autoimmune disorder. Read More

LONDON – The pharmaceutical industry has made no progress over the past two years in making drugs more affordable in low and middle income countries. Read More

HONG KONG – Australian researchers at the University of Adelaide’s Robinson Research Institute (RRI) have successfully tested a drug showing early promise for preventing pre-term birth in mice, by suppressing inflammatory mechanisms underlying premature delivery. Read More

In late August, when Dynavax Technologies Corp. heard that the FDA nixed an advisory panel to consider the BLA for HBV vaccine Heplisav-B, a few holdouts speculated that the news might bode well – it could mean that regulators had decided the panel wasn’t necessary and only a few details remained to be worked out before approval. Read More

Thanks to the emergence of paradigm-shifting all-oral antiviral regimens, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) space has surged to become one of the sector’s most lucrative markets. Read More

Tracon Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Diego, presented preclinical data from two separate liver fibrosis models in a poster, “Endoglin Antibody Reduces the NAFLD Activity Score in the STAM Model of NASH and Reduces Liver Fibrosis Following Carbon Tetrachloride Treatment.” Read More