A project aimed at developing tools to monitor the neurotoxic effects of environmental pollutants on developmental disorders in children has been funded by the European Commission under its 7th Framework programme for research.
An advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration has endorsed the agency’s decision in late 2010 to remove the breast cancer indication for Avastin (bevacizumab) despite strenuous objections from the drug’s manufacturer, Roche.
A new method for deriving induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from blood samples has been described in the journal, Blood. According to the authors, the approach could provide a new source of patient-specific cells for disease research and drug discovery.
The European Medicines Agency has issued a negative opinion to an application from Amsterdam Molecular Therapeutics BV for a gene therapy to treat patients with an enzyme deficiency that is linked with pancreatitis.
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH’s new Type 2 diabetes drug, Trajenta (linagliptin) has received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency’s main scientific committee. This follows US Food and Drug Administration approval on 2 May.
The European Medicines Agency has recommended that a new artemisinin-based combination therapy be approved to treat malaria in adults, children and infants aged six months or older. The agent combines dihydroartemisinin and piperaquine.
Ablynx NV is set to receive a €5 million milestone payment from Boehringer Ingelheim following the German company’s decision to progress an antibody-derived therapeutic protein for Alzheimer’s disease into late preclinical development.
Evotec AG and the Roche group have announced a three-year collaboration to discover biomarkers that could be used to predict the dosage and efficacy of targeted oncology drugs under development at the Swiss multinational.
AstraZeneca Plc is to sell its Swedish-based dental and healthcare businesses to Dentsply Ltd of the UK for about $1.8 billion in cash. The unit, Astra Tech, specialises in dental implants and medical devices for urology and surgery.
Privately-owned Axxam Spa of Milan, Italy has received funding from the US Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation to discover new small molecule drugs for Alzheimer’s disease that block the puringeric receptor, P2X7. The size of the grant was not disclosed.