Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) announced today that it is planning to tender an offer to acquire all outstanding common stock shares of clinical-stage biotech company Synthorx. The agreement and plan of merger between the two companies was announced on Dec. 7 and the offer is being made pursuant to that. Sanofi said it stands to acquire the common…

Biotechnology company Triplet Therapeutics announced that it launched earlier this week with $59 million in financing as it develops ways to treat certain types of genetic disorders at their source. The $59 million includes a $49 million Series A financing round led by MPM Capital and Pfizer Ventures U.S. Co-founder Atlas Venture seeded Triplet with…

Contract research organization Veristat announced today that it completed the acquisition of Catalyst Regulatory Services, a company that provides regulatory support to biopharmaceutical firms, for an undisclosed amount. Southborough, Mass.-based Veristat said Catalyst’s combination of experience and expertise in the regulatory space will help the company implement strategies, applications, submissions and interactions with regulatory agencies…

Mayo Clinic and W. L. Gore & Associates have announced a partnership to develop implantable cell therapies to treat debilitating conditions with no cure. The for-profit company, Avobis Bio, will combine a patient’s own stem cells with bioabsorbable scaffolds to stimulate the healing of perianal fistulas, painful tunneling wounds that affect patients with Crohn’s disease.…

Retrogenix and Resonant Therapeutics recently announced a non-exclusive strategic partnership that will help identify the targets of Resonant antibodies that are targeting tumor microenvironment. Resonant uses its IMPaCT tumor microenvironment models and data platform to discover targets and functionally active anti-tumor antibodies to treat more difficult tumors. Through the agreement, Retrogenix will perform targeted screening…

This article has been updated with comments from an attorney for Genus Medical Technologies. A federal judge has temporarily blocked an attempt by the FDA to regulate a barium sulfate product ingested before imaging as a drug. The decision counts as at least a partial win for Genus Medical Technologies (St. Louis), maker of the Vanilla SilQ line of…

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…

Researchers in Spain have developed a new genomics tool that can classify how species are related to each other at far larger scales than previously possible and may yield new drugs, materials and foods — and pinpoint strategies for saving species at risk of extinction. Heralded as a “Hubble Space Telescope” of genomics, the technology…

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…