Chris Newmarker

RQ Biotechnology (London) emerged from stealth mode today, saying that AstraZeneca will pay it up to $157 million plus royalties for its existing mAbs against SARS-CoV-2. “Our vision is to build on our successful debut with neutralizing antibody therapy for SARS-CoV-2 and develop innovative medicines to address current and evolving unmet needs in other viral…

Olympus (TYO: 7733) announced today that it has completed the separation of its Scientific Solutions Division into a wholly-owned subsidiary called Evident. The creation of Evident — which encompasses life science research and industrial equipment — enables Olympus management to better focus on the continued growth of the company’s Medical Business, which made up 86%…

Evonik (Essen, Germany) announced today that it now offers Eudratec SoluFlow, a microparticle technology meant to enhance solubility of active pharmaceutical ingredients in oral drug products. The emulsion-based process technology overcomes solubility hurdles that cannot be resolved by existing manufacturing technologies, according to Evonik. With more than 70% of new small molecules being insoluble, Eudratec…

Automata (London) announced today that it has raised $50 million in Series B funding to support its automation systems for life science research. Octopus Ventures led the round, with participation from returning investors Hummingbird, Latitude Ventures, ABB Technology Ventures and Isomer Capital, and strategic investors such as In-Q-Tel. Company officials plan to use the money…

The U.S. Senate confirmed Dr. Robert Califf as FDA commissioner in a 50-46 vote today. The vote capped a months-long campaign to secure Califf’s confirmation after President Joe Biden nominated him to return to the post he held near the end of the Obama administration. The Senate voted 49-45 yesterday on a cloture vote to…

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, announced today that she has secured what she described as significant ethics commitments from FDA Commissioner nominee Dr. Robert Califf. In a letter dated Jan. 27 to Warren, Califf made several promises as he seeks to secure Democratic votes for his Senate confirmation. Read the full story on our sister site…

Freenome said today that it has raised $290 million from Roche to advance its cancer early detection platform, which uses a routine blood draw. The South San Francisco, California–based company has raised more than $1.1 billion since its founding in 2014. Get the full story on our sister site MassDevice. 

Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock thinks many COVID-19 tests will continue to work with the new Omicron variant — with information coming soon on vaccine efficacy. In a statement posted yesterday, Woodcock said she thought the agency is well-positioned to work with companies to address the potential impact of viral mutations on COVID-19 tests,…

Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf could return to his old job if President Joe Biden has his way. Biden today announced his intention to nominate Califf to serve as FDA commissioner — a job he previously held during the Obama administration from 2016-17. A cardiology professor at Duke University and a member of the…

Sanofi announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Kadmon Holdings, maker of the FDA-approved Rezurock to treat chronic graft-versus-host disease in transplant patients. Kadmon shareholders approved the deal on November 5 and will receive $9.50 per share in cash. The company becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanofi. When announcing the deal in September,…

Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA) announced today that it will create a 462,000-square-foot Moderna Science Center just a half-mile drive from its present headquarters location in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The creator of messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines saw its fortunes skyrocket during the COVID-19 pandemic. It successfully created a vaccine against the novel coronavirus that millions have…

Sanofi (NSDQ:SNY) announced today that it has completed the purchase of its mRNA partner Translate Bio. The previously announced deal, according to Sanofi, accelerates the French pharma giant’s efforts to develop transformative vaccines and therapies using mRNA technology. The deal comes during a year in which mRNA-based Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) and Pfizer-BioNTech (NYSE:PFE/NSDQ:BNTX) COVID-19 vaccines are…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) announced today that it has launched the J&J Centers for Global Health Discovery, a global network of research partnerships to address the world’s health challenges. The first J&J Satellite Center for Global Health Discovery is at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The pharma and medtech giant plans to…

Global investment firm Francisco Partners announced today that it has agreed to acquire Abbott’s STARLIMS informatics product suite for an undisclosed amount. Companies in the life sciences, pharma and biotech, chemical and refining, food and beverage, manufacturing, environmental, public health and forensics sectors have used the STARLIMS suite of products for more than 35 years.…

President Joe Biden’s administration will spend $3 billion in American Rescue Plan money to accelerate the discovery, development and manufacturing of antiviral medicines against COVID-19, HHS announced today. Not only will the Antiviral Program for Pandemics seek to boost the availability of medicines to prevent serious COVID-19 illness and save lives, but it will pursue sustainable…

COVID-19 vaccines dominated pharma industry news during the first half of this year. It’s little wonder, too, since vaccines are the best hope to return the world to some kind of post-pandemic “normal.” As with any new medical treatments — especially ones authorized amid an emergency — there have been questions about side effects. Drug…

The Mayo Clinic is roughly tripling the size of the new research lab it plans to build in its home city of Rochester, Minn. Before the COVID-19 hit, plans called for a four-story building. But officials at the top-tier health provider say the pandemic taught them that scientific advancements need to accelerate in healthcare. The…

As the U.S. tries to reach a post-COVID-19 pandemic “normal,” Americans are placing more trust in nurses and doctors than agencies such as the CDC and FDA, according to a new survey from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The survey took place Feb. 11 – March 15,…

The global pharmaceutical industry held up well during the pandemic, with 10 of the largest businesses only seeing a roughly –3% drop in revenue in 2020. Eight of the 10 even came out ahead. That’s one of the big takeaways from Drug Discovery & Development’s inaugural Pharma 50, a compilation of data on the largest…

The NIH today announced that a clinical trial is underway to study whether people who are highly allergic or have a mast cell disorder are more likely to develop an allergic reaction to the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines. Reports of severe allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines have made headlines since the rollout to the…

Life sciences software company Insightful Science (Bishop’s Stortford, U.K.) recently announced that it has acquired Dotmatics (San Diego) and its cloud-based scientific R&D data management platform. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Integrating Insightful Science’s software applications into Dotmatics cloud-first enterprise data management service will enable an end-to-end scientific research platform, the…

Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA) announced today that it has started dosing the first participants in its Phase 2/3 KidCOVE study evaluating its COVID-19 vaccine among children between the ages of 6 months and 12 years. The NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) are collaborating…

MIT researchers are touting a new machine-learning technique called DeepBAR that can quickly calculate the binding affinities between drug candidates and their targets. DeepBAR produces precise calculations in a fraction of the time compared to conventional techniques, according to the researchers. They think the software could potentially accelerate drug discovery and protein engineering. “Our method…

Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced today that FDA has granted fast track designation for its VX-880, an investigational human stem cell-derived islet cell therapy for type 1 diabetes. Vertex has begun a clinical trial for VX-880 (formerly known as STx-02) in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) with severe hypoglycemia and impaired hypoglycemia awareness. “Ours is the only…

The NIH announced today that it has launched the last of three Phase 3 clinical trials to evaluate blood thinners to prevent life-threatening blood clots in adults with COVID-19. As part of the  Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) initiative, the trial will study the use of Bristol Myers Squibb/Pfizer’s Eliquis blood thinner in…