Chris Newmarker

Deciphering the key characteristics of the virus that causes COVID-19 and using experiments and computational methods to identify promising drug and vaccine candidates — those are but some of the efforts underway at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. The laboratory is also exploring options to help supply medical professionals…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) said today that its Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. has forged a partnership with the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to support coronavirus vaccine development. Janssen and the virology lab led by Dr. Dan Barouch at BIDMC have started preclinical testing of multiple vaccine prospects, with the goal of identifying a COVID-19…

Verily, Google’s life science’s sister company under Alphabet (NSDQ:GOOGL), has received an FDA 510(k) clearance to include an irregular pulse monitor in its Study Watch wearable. Pharmaceutical industry giants including Novartis, Otsuka, Pfizer and Sanofi formed a strategic alliance with Verily last year to develop patient-centered clinical research programs using Verily’s Project Baseline evidence generation platform…

European specialist investor Global Healthcare Opportunities, also called GHO Capital Partners, recently announced that it has acquired Ardena — a specialist contract development and manufacturing organization focused on early phase drug development. Financial terms of the deal, announced Jan. 9, were not disclosed. Headquartered in Belgium, Ardena assists small-to-mid-sized biopharma companies, with services spanning the…

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)  today reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat the consensus forecast on Wall Street, but its sales numbers were slightly off amid declining medical device revenue. The New Brunswick, N.J.–based pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products giant reported profits of $4.0 billion, or $1.50 per share, on sales of $20.7 billion for the three…

GE Healthcare Life Sciences said today that it has entered into a strategic R&D and distribution partnership with Advanced Solutions Life Sciences — with a goal of personalized tissue regeneration. The partnership with Advanced Solutions Life Sciences is the latest in a string of investments and partnerships that GE Healthcare (NYSE:GE) has been making to further…

Horizon Discovery Group (LSE: HZD) announced this week that the Human Protein Atlas will use Horizon’s CRISPR-edited knockout cell models to further expand the knowledge available in its Cell Atlas program. Horizon specialized in the application of gene editing and gene modulation for cell line engineering. Knockout cell models offer the possibility for an enhanced…

CicloMed (Kansas City, Mo.) has expanded the Phase 1 clinical trial for fosciclopirox, its bladder cancer drug candidate. The trial has been expanded to include patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer who are ineligible to receive cisplatin chemotherapy, the company said yesterday. Researchers have enrolled the first patient at The University of Kansas Cancer Center; the…

Lunac Therapeutics (Leeds, U.K.) this week announced that it has won a U.K. innovation grant equivalent to more than $4 million to develop what it describes as an innovative anticoagulant treatment with minimal bleeding risk. The £3.14 million grant from Innovate U.K.’s Biomedical Catalyst program also went to the Medicines Discovery Catapult and the University…

Sphere Fluidics (Cambridge, U.K.) and Peak Analysis and Automation (Farnborough, U.K.) have launched a new product as they seek to further streamline single-cell analysis in biopharmaceutical workflows. The companies yesterday announced they have integrated Sphere Fluidics’ Cyto-Mine single-cell analysis system with PAA’s automated plate handler, S-LAB. Automated micro-plate handling minimizes hands-on involvement and saves time…