An article in the Sept. 30, 2015 edition of BioWorld Asia (Genovate emerges with goal to become largest insulin maker in China) incorrectly identified a company as Genovate Biotechnology Co. Ltd. due to an incorrect statement issued by the Public Promotion Department of Changzhou Xinbei District Commission. The company's name is Genova Biotechnology Co. Ltd. Read More
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taipei-based OBI Pharma Inc. has entered into a deal with Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) for the development and commercialization in Taiwan of its narrow-spectrum macrocyclic antibiotic Dificid (fidaxomicin), which is used to treat Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD). Read More
SHANGHAI – Suzhou Ribo Life Science Co. Ltd., a Chinese siRNA drug company established in 2007, has raised $20 million in venture capital financing. The round was led by Legend Capital and joined by GGV Capital and Panlin Capital with the participation of the Kunshan RNAi Institute and Legend Star. Read More
HONG KONG – Carsgen Therapeutics Ltd. and Shanghai Cancer Institute entered a five-year research and development agreement for Carsgen's chimeric antigen receptors T-cell (CAR-T) cancer immunotherapeutic candidates. The partners will work together to discover and develop CAR-T candidates as well as next-generation CAR-T drug candidates. Read More
Chromocell Corp. CEO Christian Kopfli told BioWorld Asia that payments in his firm's potential $500 million deal with Astellas Pharma Inc. are "evenly spaced" along the development path for the oral Nav1.7 inhibitor CC8464 to treat neuropathic pain, for which trials are expected to start next year. Read More
SHANGHAI – Wechat, China's version of Twitter, broke out in excitement and some surprise when the Nobel prize went public this week. It took a modest researcher with no PhD in her eighth decade to land China's first Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology. (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 6, 2015.) Read More
HONG KONG – With a nod to proceed from the Korea Food and Drug Administration, Seoul-based Kainos Medicine Inc. is taking its Parkinson's disease candidate, KR-33493, into the clinic with the belief that it represents a fundamental improvement in the battle against the disease as the first to potentially alter Parkinson's rather than just addressing the symptoms. Read More