MorphoSys AG has joined forces with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas to discover and develop potential antibody therapies against cancer. The German company will use its technology platform to generate antibodies against jointly selected targets.
Jörg Vollmer, a veteran biotechnology executive, is to lead a new technology advisory board at Silence Therapeutics Plc, which is developing therapeutics based on ribonucleic acid (RNA) for cancer and other diseases.
The Roche Group subsidiary Genentech has extended a discovery alliance with Evotec AG that began in May 2010 for another three years to 2019 in order to continue work in identifying new small molecule drugs against targets identified by Genentech. Financial details were not disclosed.
Three executive vice presidents at Sanofi SA have decided to step down resulting in a reorganisation of the company’s executive committee which is led by Olivier Brandicourt, chief executive of the company since April 2015.
In a bid to highlight oncology, Novartis has split its pharmaceuticals division into two new business units, one of which will be devoted exclusively to cancer medicines including cell and gene therapies. Bruno Strigini will head the new unit, reporting directly to Joseph Jimenez, the chief executive.
Netherlands-based oncology developer Merus has raised $55 million in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq market, less than originally planned. Life Sciences Partners, the company’s venture capital backer, said the sums were raised in “challenging market conditions.”
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a checkpoint antibody developed by Roche, Tecentriq (atezolizumab), to treat bladder cancer. It is the first product in its class to treat this type of cancer, inhibiting the PD-L1 pathway thereby enabling the body’s immune system to fight cancer cells.
A startup company founded by Oxford University professors is making waves in the stem cell community because it has technology that promises to control in vivo the destination of cells that can repair and replace tissues affected by disease. The technology will be used to create small molecule drugs that can activate repair mechanisms that already exist in the body to treat major age-related diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, heart failure and macular degeneration.
The medaka fish, sometimes known as the Japanese rice fish, has a long history as a pet. In recent years it has also been a model organism for biological research – most recently in a study of the regeneration of damaged retinal cells.
Australian researchers have identified two genes that control a universal molecular programme responsible for placing immune cells at a point where they can quickly fight off pathogens before they establish themselves in the body. This role is said to be particularly important for protecting organs against disease.