The Renovo Group Plc is reducing its staff and the size of its board of directors in the wake of the failure of a Phase 3 trial of its wound-healing product, Juvista. Recruitment is also being stopped for a trial of a second tissue product.
TiGenix NV of Belgium and Cellerix SA of Spain have agreed to merge creating what is expected to be the largest cell therapy and regenerative medicine company in Europe. It is the most significant corporate transaction in the field of regenerative medicine since the December 2010 alliance between Cephalon Inc and Mesoblast Ltd of Australia
Fate Therapeutics Inc, the San Diego, California-based stem cell company, has announced the departure of its president and chief executive officer, Paul Grayson. Mr Grayson is leaving to form a new company, according to Fate.
Three Dutch organisations are allocating more than €3 million to a project that will develop a method for culturing stem cells for transplants in leukaemia patients. The study will also develop imaging technology to monitor these treatments.
The European Medicines Agency has issued new advice on the procedures that companies should follow in developing stem cell products. The advice is contained in a paper on the agency’s website, www.ema.europa.eu. (EMA/CAT/571134/2009).
Eli Lilly and Company has entered into a three-year research agreement with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to explore a new strategy for regenerating beta cells in people with Type 1 diabetes.
Despite the many achievements of modern cancer therapies, one uncertainty continues to haunt the industry. This is knowing whether a patient who has apparently been treated successfully with chemotherapy or a targeted antibody therapy will nonetheless experience a relapse years after a treatment has finished
Pervasis Therapeutics Inc of Cambridge Massachusetts has announced plans to pursue an endothelial cell-based therapy to target and regulate cell stroma in order to prevent solid tumour growth and metastasis.
A group of prominent UK scientists has been assembled to carry out a two-year research project to investigate the role of cancer stem cells in the development, growth and spread of tumours in breast, prostate and head and neck cancers.
Cell Medica Ltd and Baylor College of Medicine in the US have agreed to collaborate on a cell-based treatment for cancers associated with the Epstein Barr virus that involves an ex vivo procedure enabling a patient’s own cells to tackle the disease.