Brian Buntz

The digital pathology firm PathAI has released PathExplore Fibrosis, an AI-based tool that analyzes fibrosis and collagen structures from H&E-stained whole-slide tissue images. The software quantifies fibrotic areas and collagen fibers from standard pathology slides, replacing specialized staining techniques and microscopy equipment. The tool processes large datasets of tissue images, designed to work with existing…

The pharmaceutical industry’s traditional hierarchy continues to face dynamic shifts among the leaders. While Merck ($63.9B) and Pfizer ($62.5B) hold the top spots, double-digit growth from AstraZeneca (~18%), Eli Lilly (~34%), Novo Nordisk (~26%), and Amgen (~18%) signals an accelerating transformation in the sector’s competitive landscape. The continued strength of the GLP-1 market continues to…

Although Lilly has shared the topline results of the SURMOUNT-1 trial, now, the full data from the three-year study have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The company also recently presented the data at ObesityWeek in San Antonio.  The biggest conclusion was that 98.7% (752 of 762) of participants who received tirzepatide…

Pharmaceutical companies could slash their pharmacovigilance costs by half while significantly improving accuracy through generative AI, according to IQVIA’s Global Practice Lead of Pharmacovigilance Technologies, Uwe Trinks. “The idea is: we can save 50% of the cost and get the quality to above 99%,” Trinks said. “That means when we have human verification, we only…

The conceptual and technological underpinnings of digital pathology have been around for decades, with the virtual microscope emerging in the 1990s. But mainstream adoption remained elusive. For instance, when the digital histopathology service company HistoWiz launched in 2013, its focus was straightforward: provide faster turnaround times than traditional histology labs. Over the years, the company…

While many AI companies focus on analyzing existing scientific literature, this approach faces a fundamental challenge: the reliability of the source material itself. “Up to 70% of experiments described in publications cannot be replicated,” notes Yochi Slonim, CEO of Anima Biotech. “You do it once and you publish it. You do it again, it doesn’t…

Almirall’s MES/MOM director Francesc Luque is spearheading a digital transformation of the company’s pharmaceutical manufacturing, shifting from paper-based and disconnected systems to a fully integrated, “smart plant” model. In a role he assumed in early 2023, the main shift has been consolidating the company’s “Integrated Factory” program and finalizing the definition of its Manufacturing Execution…

For millions living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the path to effective treatment is often a frustrating cycle of trial and error. Typically beginning with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) like methotrexate, the goal is low disease activity. Yet RA’s heterogeneity means many patients cycle through various therapies—biologic DMARDs like anti-TNF agents, JAK inhibitors, IL-6 receptor antagonists,…

Swiss pharma giants Novartis and Roche consistently rank among the top pharma companies in terms of revenue. In 2024, the two companies are also leading in total international patent volume. Meanwhile, smaller firms like Incyte and Vertex Pharma are punching above their weight in market impact. For instance, Incyte, with a market cap of just…

In August 2024, MDMA, which is better known as ecstasy, faced a setback as a potential therapy for PTSD—a complete response letter from the FDA. While its developer, Lykos Therapeutics, plans on launching a new Phase 3 trial with tighter scrutiny, another psychedelic company, MindMed, is readying a pivotal study of LSD for generalized anxiety…

Protein Data Bank Eli Lilly is suing three medical spas and online vendors for selling products purportedly containing tirzepatide—the active ingredient in its weight-loss drug Zepbound. Similarly, Novo Nordisk has pursued legal action against a string of organizations to protect its semaglutide-based drugs from unauthorized competition and potentially unsafe copycat products. The company has filed…

MIRA Pharmaceuticals has announced that its oral ketamine analog, Ketamir-2, has outperformed current FDA-approved neuropathic pain treatments in preclinical studies. In trials using a nerve ligation model, Ketamir-2 demonstrated 112% more effectiveness than pregabalin and 70% greater relief than gabapentin by Day 22, with significant pain relief appearing as early as Day 15. The studies,…

A new drug, ANX007, could be the first to protect vision in people with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In the Phase 2 ARCHER study, monthly injections of ANX007 cut the risk of significant vision loss by 72% and preserved key retinal structures essential for vision. The developer of the drug, Annexon, plans on sharing…

Clinical trials are notoriously expensive, with Phase 3 studies costing upwards of around $55,000 per day and completed trials routinely costing in the tens of millions of dollars. The startup Unlearn aims to chip away at those costs using digital twin technology, a concept pioneered by NASA during the Apollo era to create ‘living models’…

ChatGPT may be one of the quickest adopted tech platforms in recent memory, but the potential of it and other large language models ability transform the world has also been met with occasional provider outages, hallucinations, and memory problems. “There’s a lot of resentment towards the hype,” notes Christopher M. McSpiritt, head of life sciences…

Scorpion Therapeutics’ new oral cancer drug, STX-478, showed promising anti-tumor activity as a monotherapy in a Phase 1/2 trial, achieving an overall response rate (ORR) of 23% in breast cancer and 21% across all tumor types studied. The data were unveiled at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2024, held 13–17 September 2024.…

Updated results from the Phase 3 NATALEE trial reveal that Kisqali (ribociclib) significantly cut the risk of recurrence in patients with HR+/HER2- early breast cancer. Adding Kisqali to standard endocrine therapy (ET) resulted in a 28.5% reduction in invasive disease-free survival (iDFS) events compared to ET alone (HR=0.715; 95% CI: 0.609–0.840; P<0.0001), Novartis announced in…

After establishing her lab at Cornell in 2019 and achieving notable success with publications in top journals, Liz Kellogg, Ph.D., associate member in the department of Structural Biology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital received a unique opportunity. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital had embarked on a major expansion of its structural biology and genome…

Let’s face it: Cloud-based High-Performance Computing (HPC) offers unprecedented computational power. These systems can perform quadrillions of calculations per second. But that computational horsepower comes at a price – not just financially, but in the form of a steep learning curve and a constant battle against configuration headaches, unpredictable costs, and delays. For researchers working…

Boston-based DeepCure may be an AI-focused biotech, but it sets itself apart by focusing its AI-powered platform on historically challenging drug targets that have eluded traditional approaches. “While AI in drug discovery is often viewed as a means to accelerate and reduce costs, our focus at DeepCure is on achieving true novelty in drug development…

Redwood City, California–based Earli is, in many ways, a quintessential Silicon Valley startup. As is often the case, there’s not only a Stanford connection but a grand ambition. The company is developing a “synthetic biopsy” platform that aims to detect cancer at its earliest stages by programming cancer cells to reveal themselves and even self-destruct.…

Imagine going from near-total blindness to seeing the world in a whole new light – literally. That’s the reality for some participants in a recent gene therapy trial for LCA1, where vision improvements ranged from a 100-fold increase to a 10,000-fold jump. LCA1 (Leber Congenital Amaurosis 1) is a type of Leber Congenital Amaurosis that…

 “Nearly all diseases stem from a molecular mechanism going wrong,” writes Sergei Yakneen, chief technology officer of Alphabet’s Isomorphic Labs in a recent blog post. “Whether it’s an infectious agent disrupting our cellular machinery or a breakdown in processes like DNA repair, identifying the right protein and finding molecules to interact with it is…

Google Cloud’s Shweta Maniar is on a mission to revamp drug discovery with the power of generative AI, the trendy type of AI that can create new content. The tech is well-suited for a range of applications in drug discovery and across the life sciences. Whether it’s supporting organizations in their drug discovery efforts or…

GLP-1 therapies just got a whole lot less expensive for patients who pay out of pocket. Eli Lilly’s Zepbound (tirzepatide) single-dose vials are now available at rates similar to compounded versions of semaglutide. Patients can now access a four-week supply of Zepbound for as little as $399 for the 2.5 mg dose and $549 for…