News

Scientists at Imperial College London have determined that pneumococcal bacteria have been able to thwart vaccines because a “hotspot” of rapidly evolving

The term biopsy has traditionally been associated with the examination of tissue from a patient in order to detect the presence of disease. Tissue samples can be taken from the bone marrow, or organs such as the bladder, lung or liver, using procedures of varying complexity from the insertion of a needle into the skin, to surgery.

For the first time, scientists at BioNTech AG have shown that it is possible to instruct an organism to create its own bispecific antibodies capable targeting and killing cancer. The experiment, conducted in mice, was reported in Nature Medicine on 12 June.

Bonesupport Holding AB, a Swedish orthobiologics company, has announced plans to raise SEK 500 million (€51.2 million) on Nasdaq Stockholm in order to expand sales of its bioceramic bone graft substitutes that are used to treat bone infections and trauma.

Novartis’ candidate chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy for cancer is scheduled to be reviewed on 12 July by the US Food and Drug Administration’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee, according to Oxford BioMedica Plc, which is supplying lentiviral vector for the product.

Merck KGaA has taken steps to bolster its immuno-oncology portfolio with the signing of an option and collaboration agreement with F-star Biotechnology Ltd to develop five bispecific antibody compounds. A bispecific antibody is an engineered molecule that binds to two different antigens.

Bicycle Therapeutics Ltd has raised £40 million in a Series B financing round to bring its first peptide-based therapeutic into the clinic. The financing was led by Vertex Ventures, along with Cambridge Innovation Capital and the Longwood Fund.

A cartilage repair product developed by co.don AG of Germany received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency on 19 May, making it the ninth advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) to be assessed for marketing in Europe.

Heptares Therapeutics has described the structure of the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor binding to a peptide agonist, giving the first visual evidence of how a class of drugs that treat Type 2 diabetes actually work. The findings were reported online in Nature on 31 May 2017.

A novel vaccine platform developed by Hookipa Biotech AG has triggered an immune response in genetically engineered mice with cancer that was stronger than many conventional viral vectors. The findings were published on 26 May 2017 in Nature Communications.