Two very different roles were reported for the protein REST last week. In adults, REST activation appeared to extend lifespan by reducing overall brain activity. Principal investigator Bruce Yankner, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, told BioWorld that in postmortem brain samples of individuals who had had no cognitive impairments at the time of their death, his team found "a correlation between down-regulation of excitation and extended longevity." Read More
Allievex Corp., a new company advancing an enzyme replacement therapy for Sanfilippo syndrome type B licensed from Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc. through a registrational phase II trial, has marked the first close of a series A financing co-led by Novo Holdings and the startup's founder, Pappas Capital. Read More
HONG KONG – South Korean biotech company Qurient Co. Ltd. has inked a joint venture (JV) foundation deal involving German companies Max Planck Society (MPG), of Munich, and Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC) in Dortmund, as well as the 1988 Nobel laureate and biochemist Robert Huber. Read More
Following FDA approval of Novartis AG's VEGF-A inhibitor, Beovu, in wet age-related macular degeneration earlier this month, speculation immediately started on how much market share that new therapeutic will capture at the expense of Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc.'s Eylea. Read More
BOGOTA, Colombia – Looking to dig deeper into its rest-of-the-world market operations, Canadian firm Knight Therapeutics Inc. acquired Latin America's largest biotech company, Biotoscana Investments SA. Read More
Privately held Pepticom Ltd., of Jerusalem, completed a $5 million series A fundraising, allowing it to use artificial intelligence (AI) in helping research centers, pharma and agriculture companies discover advanced peptide-based drug candidates. Read More
CLEVELAND – Patents took center stage on the final morning of Cleveland Clinic's Medical Innovation Summit, with two experts shedding some light on the issues surrounding patentability – particularly in light of recent legal cases and a hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations. Read More
