Researchers in Pittsburgh and Boston are moving forward with research into two separate vaccine programs against SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The work of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers is detailed in a paper published recently in EBioMedicine, which is published by the Lancet. Delivery of the vaccine involved…

Thermo Fisher Scientific is boasting that scientists no longer need to limit routine trace element analysis workflow productivity. The company has launched a new series of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) instruments for food and beverage, consumer safety, industrial, environmental and pharmaceutical laboratories. Read the full story on our sister site R&D World. 

Hardly anyone’s R&D  workplace has been spared all the repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis. People are working remotely, staggering their hours in laboratories to avoid too many coworkers, and relying heavily on conference calls and video meetings. Our WTWH Media sister site R&D World spoke to a few industry people to see how they’re coping…

General Electric (NYSE:GE) announced that it completed the sale of its BioPharma business to Danaher (NYSE:DHR) for net proceeds totaling approximately $20 billion. Boston-based GE said in a news release that, under the agreeement, it received a total consideration worth $21.4 billion, with $21 billion in cash along with Danaher’s assumption of certain pension liabilities. After accounting…

While vaccines and pharmaceutical treatments for COVID-19 might be far off, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Colorado are exploring a stopgap measure that could buy time for critically ill patients, according to a release by the two institutions. In a clinical trial being planned for hospitals in Massachusetts and Colorado,…

Synthetic biology company SGI-DNA is touting its efforts to accelerate research in the creation of vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The San Diego-based company said in a news release last month that it built the genes thought to be critical to developing successful vaccines against the virus and made those tools…

A Phase 1 clinical trial for an investigational COVID-19 vaccine is underway at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. The open-label trial plans to enroll 45 healthy adults aged 18 to 55 years over a six week period. The first study participant received the vaccine yesterday. Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research…

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…

Researchers at the University of Bristol (United Kingdom) are touting their use of virtual reality (VR) as a means to design and develop the next generation of drug treatments. In a published work in the journal PLOS ONE, the researchers explained the use of VR in discovering new drugs by finding molecules that bind to…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is offering advanced development support to Hologic (NSDQ:HOLX) for a molecular diagnostic test for coronavirus (COVID-19). Marlborough, Mass.-based Hologic’s test is the first coronavirus product selected for development through ASPR’s biomedical advanced R&D authority streamlined selection process (BARDA), which…

Evonetix announced today that it closed a $30 million Series B funding round as it develops technology for enabling gene synthesis on a chip. The Cambridge, U.K.-based synthetic biology company said the funding round, led by new investor Foresite Capital, is slated to fund the company through to the introduction of its desktop DNA platform,…

IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced today that it plans to work with medical institutions and practitioners by offering support in the development of drugs to combat the recent coronavirus outbreak. The company said in a news release that it intends to leverage its IBM clinical development (ICD) system to help accelerate the development of key drugs in…

Bayer (ETR:BAYN) announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to transfer some of its small molecule research unit to Nuvisan for an undisclosed amount. The agreement is slated to lay a foundation for Nuvisan to establish the Berlin-based research unit and support Bayer’s focus on the flexibility and productivity of its research & development operating…

The FDA and U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced today that they signed a joint statement to encourage collaboration in support of a robust marketplace for biological products, including the critical adoption of biosimilars and interchangeable products. The two agencies said the statement sets out to address false or misleading promotion about biosimilars within the…

Vascular Therapies announced that it closed an upsized private funding round worth more than $17 million with contributions from new and existing investors. The Cresskill, N.J.–based clinical-stage biopharma company originally targeted $15 million for the financing, but finished with a total of $17.3 million raised. Get the full story at our sister site, MassDevice.

Bayer (ETR:BAYN) announced that it is entering into a collaboration agreement with artificial intelligence drug discovery company Exscientia to identify and optimize novel lead structures for potential drug candidates in treating cardiovascular and oncological diseases. The agreement, announced earlier this month, is slated to see the companies work together on early research projects combining Exscientia’s proprietary…

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…

Chemical industry digital supply chain company Elemica (Wayne, Pa.) said recently that it has extended its offerings to the pharmaceutical industry. Pharma companies using Elemica solutions will now benefit from improved collaboration, visibility, quality management, traceability and speed of execution across their global supply chains, according to Elemica. The company has been building digital solutions…

Avacta Group, the developer of Affimer biotherapeutics and reagents, provided an update on the Affimer therapeutics development partnership and license agreement with LG Chem Life Sciences, part of the South Korean LG Group, to develop Affimer therapeutics in several disease areas. Avacta has generated a large number of Affimer proteins that bind to the first…

Optibrium™, BioSolveIT™ and Enamine™, providers of software and services for drug discovery, today announce a three-way collaboration enabling efficient search of Enamine’s REAL Space directly from within Optibrium’s StarDrop™ software. This extension to StarDrop is powered by BioSolveIT’s proprietary Feature Trees (FTrees) technology, to search a gigantic chemical space of over 11 billion readily accessible…

LUNAC Therapeutics (LUNAC), a UK based drug discovery company focused on the identification and development of advanced anticoagulants with minimal bleeding risk, today announced it has spun out of the University of Leeds with £2.65M funding in the first close of a Series A financing round. The investment is being led by Epidarex Capital and…

Turbine, a simulation-based drug discovery company today announced the closing of an institutional financing round led by Delin Ventures. The seed fund will be used to redesign the failure-prone oncology drug discovery process into a series of rational steps facilitated by Turbine’s proprietary human cell model and simulation platform. The company’s first institutional financing round…

Advanced Solutions Life Sciences announced that it won the Frost & Sullivan 2019 Bioprinting Value Leadership Award for demonstrating best-in-class biofabrication, hardware, software and consulting services. Last month’s award highlights global consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan’s view that ASLS develops unique and cost-effective solutions to advance the development of life-saving drugs by way of 3D bioprinting,…