The U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) commitment of up to $483 million to accelerate Moderna Inc.’s mRNA vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, in efforts to fight coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) would enable the company to supply millions of doses per month in 2020 and tens of millions per month in 2021 if the vaccine candidate is successful in the clinic. Read More
As expected – and well ahead of the Aug. 20 PDUFA date – Bothell, Wash-based Seattle Genetics Inc. (Seagen) won FDA clearance for the oral small-molecule breast cancer therapy tucatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor branded Tukysa. Read More
HONG KONG - South Korean biopharma Legochem Biosciences Inc. has partnered with the U.K.’s Iksuda Therapeutics Ltd. to develop oncological antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). Under the global research collaboration and license agreement, Legochem is set to rake in up to $407 million from development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, as well as royalties on the sales of any resulting ADC products. Read More
LONDON – Researchers at the Jenner Institute in Oxford have given an inside view of how they are accelerating clinical development of a COVID-19 vaccine and at the same time putting in place commercial manufacturing for when phase III efficacy data are available, expected in August or September. Read More
Chinese scientists have shown for the first time that the down-regulation of a single RNA-binding protein, polypyrimidine tract-binding protein 1 (Ptbp1), locally converted glial cells to neurons and showed promise for treating the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases in mice. Read More
HONG KONG – Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co. Ltd. and Nagoya Institute of Technology have kicked off research on a joint project for a gene therapy that could be applied to the restoration of vision. Read More
KARACHI, Pakistan – The government of Pakistan is tapping into mobile technology to protect its pharmaceutical supply chain and prevent abuse. As part of an ongoing effort to deal with an overabundance of fake and counterfeit medicines, Pakistan has introduced a mobile app that allows for instant access to the country’s National Essential Medicines List (NEML) while giving patients access to drug information and the ability to lodge complaints with regulators. Read More
BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Engineering better bacterial backstabbers; Targeting bystander protein improves sepsis outcome; Long noncoding RNA has sex-specific role in depression; Targeted IL-12 heats up cold tumors; Fast route from fibroblasts to photoreceptors; Eating pro-inflammatory IgG helps prevent liver failure; Depression’s structural problem; Modeling the post-infarct heart; Interleukins rile each other up in reaction to implants; Complement links high BMI to dementia. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Astrazeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, GSK, Lilly, Mesoblast, Mind Medicine, Momenta, Novartis, Oryzon, Regeneron, Sanofi, Sinovac, UCB, Veloxis. Read More
Biopharma happenings, including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Clarus Therapeutics, Cynata Therapeutics, Evolus, Halix, Highlight Therapeutics, Lipocine, Nicox, Ocumension Therapeutics, Redhill Biopharma, Retrotope, Roche, Storm Therapeutics. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Chi-Med, Everest, Redhill, Seattle Genetics. Read More
