Novartis AG said that its Phase 3 trial of Afinitor (everolimus) for women with advanced breast cancer has been stopped early after interim results showed that the primary endpoint of progression-free survival was met.
AstraZeneca Plc is to make an undisclosed up-front cash payment to PTC Therapeutics Inc for access to technology that regulates the rate and timing of protein production in the cell. The goal is to discover new small molecule drugs for cancer.
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.
Oxford BioMedica Plc said that its gene therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration was shown to be safe and well-tolerated following the administration of a first dose in a Phase 1 study at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US.
Roche has reported that its investigational treatment for advanced basal cell carcinoma, vismodegib, shrank tumours in a Phase 2 study of patients with locally-advanced disease and those with metastatic disease.
Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH of Tübingen, Germany has started vaccination of the first patients in a Phase 3 trial of its therapeutic vaccine for renal cell cancer. The primary endpoint is overall survival in combination with sunitinib.
The European Union’s public-private partnership for drug development research, the Innovative Medicines Initiative, is to formally collaborate with the US Critical Path Institute, in a move to share more information from pre-competitive research.
CureVac GmbH, which has a messenger RNA vaccine in development for prostate cancer has reported that the vaccine induced an immune response to at least one antigen in 79% of patients in a Phase 1/2a study.
A molecular diagnostic developed by MDxHealth of Belgium will be used to screen patients for a second oncology trial in what is seen as a further expansion of the rapidly evolving field of personalised medicine. The assay tests methylation status.
Pfizer Inc has received institutional review board approval to start a virtual clinical trial in the US that uses mobile telephone and web-based technology to collect data from participants rather than requiring them to visit clinics.