Bionomics Ltd., of Adelaide, Australia, said the FDA has cleared BNC101, a first-in-class, high-affinity humanized monoclonal antibody targeting cancer stem cells, to start clinical trials. The company said it plans to begin a phase I study in those with metastatic colon cancer and metastatic pancreatic cancer before Dec. 31. Read More
HONG KONG – Standing out of a crowd of more than 200 next-generation sequencing (NGS) product developers in China, a 20-month-old company raised ¥150 million (US$23 million) in a follow-up series A financing and struck a partnership deal with U.S. genomics leader Illumina Inc. Read More
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Nanotherapeutics Inc. have struck an agreement providing the Osaka, Japan-based pharma firm with expanded commercialization and technology rights to Nanotherapeutics’ Vero cell technology, a manufacturing platform that’s key to Takeda’s flu vaccines and its aspirations to further develop its global vaccines business in other markets. Read More
HONG KONG — A Japanese study has demonstrated how a phospholipid released by the nervous system’s glial cells controls the positioning of sensory neurons within the spinal cord, giving rise to the possibility that a lipid-based signaling system could be a therapeutic target for spinal cord injuries. Read More
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc. is buying Japanese firm R-Tech Ueno Ltd. through an all-cash tender offer valued at ¥33 billion (US$278 million), a deal CEO Peter Greenleaf said marks both the culmination of the company’s transformation over the past year and the trajectory of its future growth via business development efforts. Read More
HONG KONG – Although authorities only allow studies linked to stem cells at the moment, the launch of China’s first official regulations on stem cell studies may prove to be good news to the country’s cell therapy industry. Read More
HONG KONG – All the recent stock market turbulence notwithstanding, Chinese biopharmaceutical companies continued growing in the first half of 2015, although that growth has slowed. Read More
