DUBLIN – Last year was yet another banner year for European biotechnology firms engaged in drug development. The sector took in $7.739 billion in equity funding in 2019, just edging past the previous high of $7.715 billion it reached in 2018. The second half of the year was a marked improvement on the first half, but that was linked to the timing of a couple of large-scale transactions. Read More
A closely watched bid by Incyte Corp. to tackle acute graft-vs.-host-disease (GVHD) with the JAK1 inhibitor itacitinib has fallen flat in pivotal testing, leaving analysts skeptical about the drug's future and pessimistic about the company's R&D chops. Read More
While Novan Inc.’s phase III failure in treating molluscum contagiosum for patients ages 6 months and older battered its stock Friday, the company intends to take the positive data it gleaned to the FDA to discuss an NDA submission and a possible phase III trial for next year. Read More
Two players in the gene sequencing space, Illumina Inc. and Pacific Biosciences, have scotched their planned $1.2 billion merger roughly two weeks after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission posted a 5-0 vote to seek an injunction against the merger. Read More
A mitochondrial glutamine transporter variant is a key regulator of glutamine metabolism and metabolic reprogramming in cancer cells, and targeting such transporters could be a new strategy for controlling tumor growth, Korean researchers reported online in the Dec. 19, 2019, edition of Cell Metabolism. Read More
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have discovered that intravenous (I.V.) delivery of the Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine sharply improved its ability to provoke a protective T-cell response in the lungs. Read More
