Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have identified a target for selectively inducing programmed cell death in latently HIV-infected T cells, opening up a new strategy for eliminating the reservoir of nondividing infected host cells that are currently the biggest barrier to an HIV cure. Read More
Rocket Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New York, reported preclinical data from its leukocyte adhesion deficiency-1 (LAD-1) and infantile malignant osteopetrosis lentiviral vector (LVV)-based gene therapy programs at the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. Read More
Logicbio Therapeutics Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based preclinical genome editing company, priced an IPO of 7 million shares at $10 each, for gross proceeds of $70 million. Read More
HONG KONG – Scandals continue to cast a shadow on China's vaccine industry, with Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd. recently handed a hefty fine totaling ¥9.1 billion (US$1.3 billion). Meanwhile another vaccine maker, Sinovac Biotech Ltd., has been hobbled by company infighting, which has forced it to suspend production of vaccines for hepatitis A and seasonal flu, markets for which it supplied 18 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively, of vaccine production in China last year. Read More
PERTH, Australia – Australia is kicking off its first-ever registry-based randomized controlled trials in oncology to help clinicians select the right treatments for the right patients. Read More
A spokesperson for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. said the company had little to add to its press release disclosing the halt of the phase II study with MM-121, but a pipeline review was promised during the third-quarter earnings call next month. Read More
Privately held cancer drug developer TP Therapeutics Inc. said a newly completed $80 million mezzanine financing will help move its lead candidate, repotrectinib, into a potentially pivotal phase II study in early 2019. The company, which is at first targeting ROS1-positive non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and NTRK-positive solid tumors, specializes in addressing treatment resistance. Read More
DUBLIN – Innate Pharma SA has found what it claimed is a "compelling" efficacy signal for its first-in-class immune checkpoint inhibitor antibody, monalizumab, in a phase II combination trial with cetuximab in patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). Read More
