Too much bureaucracy often leaves corporate R&D departments hamstrung. It’s little wonder that biotechs were responsible for 38 of the 59 new therapies approved in 2018 compared with 21 for the big pharmaceutical companies, according to Biotechnology Innovation Organization research cited in a recent Harvard Business Review article. The authors of the HBR article were…
Pfizer, Valneva to co-develop Lyme disease vaccine
Pfizer and Valneva recently announced that they will collaborate on developing Valneva’s Lyme disease vaccine candidate VLA15, presently in Phase 2 clinical studies. Valneva is eligible to receive a total of $308 million, including $130 million upfront, according to an April 30 news release. Get the full story on our WTWH Media sister site R&D…
AI VIVO’s artificial intelligence may have found more drugs to fight COVID-19
AI VIVO (Cambridge, UK) says it is looking for pharma and biotech companies interested in working on therapeutic candidates that its artificial intelligence has identified as “top-ranked” for COVID-19. The company says it has found that multiple groups around the world already are conducting clinical trials for 41 of the candidate drugs from its top-ranked…
Sandia researchers look for genetic bullet against COVID-19
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are using genetic resequencing tools to find ways to stop the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. Biochemist Joe Schoeniger and virologist Oscar Negrete’s work involves genetically engineering a deployable antiviral countermeasure for COVID-19 using CRISPR-based technology. “The goal is to find new ‘reloadable’ countermeasures for viral outbreaks that do not…
ProteoGenix announces a new Human COVID-19 antibody library
International antibodies producer ProteoGenix recently announced what it touts as the first Human Immune COVID-19 library for the fast discovery of potent antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. “Highly sensitive and specific antibodies are critical for the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and prophylactics to fight against COVID-19,” said Philippe Funfrock, co-founder and president of ProteoGenix. “The new Human…
New PerkinElmer offerings meant to streamline analysis for a variety of labs
PerkinElmer recently announced that it has expanded its analysis and automation portfolio for quality, safety and content testing. The company geared the new offerings for pharmaceutical, semiconductor, biomonitoring, food, materials and academia labs. They’re supposed to help streamline workflows, sharpen insights and meet regulations. Go to our WTWH Media sister site R&D World for the…
NIH says still no drug proven safe, effective for treating COVID-19
The National Institutes of Health today announced the publishing of new COVID-19 treatment guidelines, and the expert panel producing the guidelines says no drug has yet been proven safe and effective against the virus. NIH has the new guidelines posted online at covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov — and says it will update the guidelines often as new peer-reviewed…
Sanofi, GSK seek to have an adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine ready by late 2021
Sanofi and GSK recently announced that they have signed a letter of intent to collaborate on an adjuvanted vaccine for COVID-19 — with a goal of having the vaccine available by the second half of 2021. Sanofi is contributing its S-protein COVID-19 antigen. The company’s recombinant DNA technology produced an exact genetic match to proteins…
SP Scienceware launches new ProCulture product line
SP Scienceware is touting ProCulture, its new workflow-minded product line for cell culture under the company’s Bel-Art and Wilmad-LabGlass brands. ProCulture covers multiple steps of the cell culture process from isolation to harvesting, according to SP Scienceware. Products include an array of shaker flasks, spinner flasks with a unique impeller that increases aeration and eliminates…
How Brookhaven National Laboratory is fighting COVID-19
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: Clinical study of potential coronavirus vaccine could start by end of year
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…
FDA clears Verily Study Watch for additional capabilities
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…
GHO Capital acquires Ardena
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 misses the mark on Q4 revenue
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 partnering on regenerative tissue manufacturing
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 announces partnership with Human Protein Atlas
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 expands clinical trial for bladder cancer drug
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 led project wins U.K. innovation grant worth $4m
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, Peak Analysis and Automation partner to streamline single cell analysis
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…