Following the raising of a $90 million Series C, privately held GenapSys will begin rolling out a line of low cost electronic-based genetic sequencing machines that it says could upend the research and clinical testing industries. CEO Hesaam Esfandyarpour says the Redwood City, Calif.–based company’s Sequencer, a table-top device that carries a price tag that’s…

Propeller Health announced today that users of its Propeller app are now able to access pharmacy services from CVS, Walmart, Kroger and Rite-Aid directly through that app. The Madison, Wis.–based company launched the app in January 2019, giving Walgreens patients the option to manage their asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medication regimen within the mobile app.…

Owlstone Medical last week announced that it has forged a partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific‘s (NYSE:TMO) to advance non-invasive breath sampling in disease detection. Through the agreement, both companies will integrate the Thermo Scientific Q Exactive GC Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap MassSpectrometer into Owlstone Medical’s Breath Biopsy platform. The collaboration will hopefully qualify the mass analyzer for…

Mesa Labs this week announced it is acquiring Sweden-based Gyros Protein Technologies for a cash consideration of $180 million. The acquisition is expected to add between $37 million to $40 million in revenue during the first 12 months, according to Mesa Laboratories. The company also adjusted its operating income as a percentage of revenues to…

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…

OcuMedic said today that it entered into an exclusive supply agreement and picked up a strategic investment from Gelest for its proprietary drug-eluting soft contact lens of an undisclosed amount. Under the terms of the agreement, Morrisville, Pa.-based Gelest is set to manufacture and supply OcuMedic’s key chemistry components used in the controlled release of…

Intersect ENT (NSDQ:XENT) shares plunged today after the company said it failed to meet the primary endpoint in a study of its Ascend investigational drug-coated sinus balloon. The 70-person, randomized, double-blind trial was designed to compared treatment with Intersect ENT’s DCB when randomized against an uncoated balloon control. The study missed the primary endpoint, frontal sinus…

Insulet (NSDQ:PODD) said today that it won FDA clearance to market its Omnipod Dash alternate controller-enabled (ACE) infusion pump as an integrated insulin pump. The Acton, Mass.-based company received FDA 510(k) clearance for the Omnipod Dash in June 2018 and launched the device earlier this year. The latest indication states that the pump can reliably and…

ArQule, Inc. announced preliminary results from the company’s phase 1/2 study of its pan-AKT inhibitor, miransertib (ARQ 092), in patients with PIK3CA-related Overgrowth Spectrum (PROS) and Proteus syndrome (PS) in an oral presentation at the European Society of Human Genetics Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. “The results presented from our ongoing phase 1/2 study highlight the potential…

It’s a feat three decades in the making: Harvard University chemists have achieved what a new paper calls a “landmark in drug discovery” with the total synthesis of halichondrin. Known to be a potent anti-cancer agent in mouse studies, and found naturally in sea sponges — though only ever in minuscule quantities — the halichondrin…

Genentech announced positive top line results from the Roche-sponsored Phase III Pemphix study evaluating the efficacy and safety of Rituxan (rituximab) compared to mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in adults with moderate to severe pemphigus vulgaris (PV). The study met the primary endpoint, and demonstrated that Rituxan is superior to MMF in achieving sustained complete remission. “The Pemphix study provides…

GlaxoSmithKline plc announced a five-year collaboration with the University of California to establish a state-of-the-art laboratory for CRISPR technologies, the Laboratory for Genomics Research (LGR). The new laboratory will explore how gene mutations cause disease and develop new technologies using CRISPR to rapidly accelerate the discovery of new medicines. With the recent explosion of information…

Discovery of a new feature of a large class of pathogenic viruses may allow development of new antiviral medications for the common cold, polio and other illnesses, according to a new study publishing June 11 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Rana Abdelnabi and Johan Neyts of the University of Leuven, Belgium, and James…

A team of UK scientists have identified the mechanism behind hardening of the arteries, and shown in animal studies that a generic medication normally used to treat acne could be an effective treatment for the condition. The team, led by the University of Cambridge and King’s College London, found that a molecule once thought only…

Like airport security barriers that either clear authorized travelers or block unauthorized travelers and their luggage from accessing central operation areas, the blood-brain-barrier (BBB) tightly controls the transport of essential nutrients and energy metabolites into the brain and staves off unwanted substances circulating in the blood stream. Importantly, it’s highly organized structure of thin blood…

A scorpion native to Eastern Mexico may have more than just toxin in its sting. Researchers at Stanford University and in Mexico have found that the venom also contains two color-changing compounds that could help fight bacterial infections. The team not only isolated the compounds in the scorpion’s venom, but also synthesized them in the…

A drug that targets the immune system can delay the onset of type 1 diabetes an average of two years in children and adults at high risk, according to findings from TrialNet’s Teplizumab (anti-CD3) Prevention Study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. With 28 study sites around the world, it is the largest…

Signals between our gut and brain control how and when we eat food. But how the molecular mechanisms involved in this signaling are affected when we eat a high-energy diet and how they contribute to obesity are not well understood. Using a mouse model, a research team led by a biomedical scientist at the University…

Patients with left-sided heart failure who get implanted devices to improve the pumping of their hearts may be more likely to develop heart failure on the opposite side of their hearts if they are pre-treated with off-label selective vasodilator drugs, according to new research published in Circulation: Heart Failure, an American Heart Association journal. Between…

An unhealthy, inflamed gut causes breast cancer to become much more invasive and spread more quickly to other parts of the body, new research from the University of Virginia Cancer Center suggests. Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, of UVA’s Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, found that disrupting the microbiome of mice caused hormone receptor-positive breast…

More than nine million Americans know the scary feeling: sudden, severe shoulder pain and the sensation that their arm feels stuck, unable to move. “Frozen shoulder” is a common condition that happens when the connective tissues around the shoulder joint become thickened and stiff, often a result of trauma, extended use, immobilization, surgical procedures or…