Cytokinetics Inc. as a competitor for Myokardia Inc.’s cardiovascular drug, mavacamten, didn’t come up until near the end of the conference call related to the $13.1 billion buyout of the latter company by Bristol Myers Squibb Co., but the prospect is on Wall Street’s mind. Read More
Monday, Oct. 5, was probably the first day of 2020 that SARS-CoV-2 had serious competition for science media attention – by another virus. The Nobel Assembly awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine to Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles Rice “for the discovery of hepatitis C virus.” Read More
LONDON – Clinical care guidelines recommending the use of the HIV/AIDS combination lopinavir-ritonavir for the treatment of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 must now be updated, say the authors of a paper reporting the full results of a randomized U.K. study showing the antiviral is not effective in this context, published in The Lancet on Oct. 5. Read More
Shares of Corvus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:CRVS) climbed 19.4% to $4.86 Oct. 5 after the company said updated data from an ongoing phase I study of CPI-006 as an immunotherapy for COVID-19 continued to support its development in that area. Read More
According to BioWorld, almost $85 billion was raised by public and private biopharma companies globally in the second and third quarters alone, bringing the dollars generated to date to more than $100 billion – a total that smashes the existing record of about $69 billion that was raised in 2015. Read More
LONDON – U.S. chipmaker Nvidia Inc. is investing £40 million (US$51.9 million) in building a supercomputer in Cambridge, U.K., to be dedicated to applying artificial intelligence in drug discovery and in health care. Read More
HONG KONG – Xi’an, China-based Yufan Biotechnologies Co. Ltd. has partnered with Pittsburgh-based Abound Bio Inc. to discover and develop antibodies directing CAR T cells against cancer targets. Read More
In a fireside chat at the Advanced Medical Technology Association (Advamed)-sponsored Virtual Medtech Conference on Oct. 5, U.S. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn addressed questions that have been circulating for months about the political pressure that the agency is facing to quickly approve a vaccine for COVID-19 by reiterating that any decisions will be “completely dependent on when data is mature” from phase III trials. Read More
Nine years after Amag Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Makena (hydroxyprogesterone caproate injection) received accelerated approval to reduce the risk of preterm birth in certain at-risk pregnancies, the FDA is proposing its withdrawal from the U.S. market because the required postmarketing study didn’t show clinical benefit. Read More
New hires and promotions in the biopharma industry, including: Allena, Biomarin, CGT Catapult, Expansion, Genomics, Immunophotonics, Intellia, Medivir, Opthea, Oxular, Proqr, Q-State, Reven. Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: BMS, Carsgen, Eyevensys, Immunogen, Taigen. Read More
