LONDON – The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its first-ever priority list of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, as a call to arms for the industry to respond to the most urgent public health needs. Read More

SHANGHAI – In the midst of a busy news week for CRISPR/Cas9 – a powerful tool that gives cut-and-paste accuracy to gene editing by using adapted immune bacteria – Toolgen Inc. has made advances of its own. The Seoul, South Korea-based company shared encouraging results in Nature Communications in a study evaluating Campylobacter jejuni Cas9 (CjCas9), the smallest Cas9 orthologue characterized to date, for efficient genome editing in vivo. Read More

HONG KONG – Reforms to China’s drug approval process are gradually changing the industry, but the reforms are not making things easier for multinational drugmakers looking to launch new medicines in the country. Read More

A study by Chinese researchers has identified a key suppressor of apoptosis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and then showed that a small peptide segment derived from it ameliorated the currently untreatable liver disease in mice and nonhuman primates. Read More

A specific immune system proteinase, granzyme A, was shown to promote arthritic inflammation in mice infected with chikungunya virus (CHIKV), in an Australian study reported in the Feb. 16, 2017, edition of PLOS Pathogens. Read More

Pharmaxis Ltd., of Sydney, said the last of 423 patients has concluded treatment in its international phase III trial evaluating Bronchitol (mannitol) for cystic fibrosis (CF). Read More