Sanofi-Aventis SA and its partner, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, have announced that their Phase 3 trial of the candidate drug, aflibercept, for second-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, combined with docetaxel, did not extend overall survival.
Généthon, a not-for profit French biotherapy laboratory, has announced a collaboration with the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in the US to work on the preclinical development of a gene therapy for myotubular myopathy.
Scientists from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the US have reported transforming human embryonic stem cells into a type of neuron that plays a critical role in memory. The findings have been published in Stem Cells.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts have reported finding a regulator of gene activity that can instruct epidermal stem cells to grow or stop growing, a finding that may have use for cancer as well as regenerative medicine.
A group of Danish researchers, backed by a DKK 90 million (€12 mln) grant from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation, have joined forces to identify still-unknown pathogens that may cause cancer. Bavarian Nordic is a project partner.
UCB SA of Belgium is to allocate up to $6 million over two years to a new collaboration with Harvard University focusing on research into future therapeutics for immunological diseases and diseases of the central nervous system.
A Phase 3 trial of the monoclonal antibody, belimumab, has shown the drug to be safe and effective for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and may be a new option for management of the disease, according to a paper in The Lancet.
Scientists based in the UK and Canada have reported identifying a new oncogene that may play a role in up to a third of the more aggressive oestrogen positive breast cancers. It is the first new breast cancer oncogene to be reported in about five years.
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 non-profit Medicines for Malaria Venture and Jomaa Pharma GmbH of Germany have entered into an agreement to co-develop fosmidomycin as a component of a non-artemisinin based combination therapy for acute Plasmodium falciparum malaria.