On 23 October, US-based Bristol Myers Squibb Co disclosed that a patient with highly active relapsing multiple sclerosis died of septic pneumonia following the data cutoff in a Phase 1 trial. The study involved the treatment of patients with autoimmune neurological diseases with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy targeting CD19 on B cells.
Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai were awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on 7 October for discovering how chemical reactions can produce an excess of one of two mirror-image forms of a molecule. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.”
AM-Pharma BV of the Netherlands is being acquired by a specialist healthcare company in the UK in a deal that will see its enzyme replacement therapy for hypophosphatasia (HPP) advance to Phase 2. The buyer is Ambrose Healthcare Ltd which already has two rare disease programmes in its portfolio and is positioning itself for more. This comes at a time when the US Food and Drug Administration is updating its guidance for the developers of drugs for rare diseases. Current estimates put the number of these diseases at 7,000 to 10,000 globally.
Regulatory Strategy
How the US encourages rare disease drug development
By Darex Vera-Rodriguez and Michael Salgaller
Obesity Drug Review
Change is coming to the weight loss sector
By Peter Charlish
Interview
The role played by DEBRA Research in translational medicine
Public Policy
New EU regulation on the use of artificial intelligence
Research News
Shingles vaccine may protect heart
By Rosie Bannister
DARPA awards grant to UK biotech for defense
(162.33 KB)
