The corporate venture arms of three European pharmaceutical groups are principal investors in a US start-up company called Tioma Therapeutics Inc that is developing antibodies targeting CD47, a protein that is overexpressed on different tumour cells.
Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with the Estonian Competence Centre on Health Technologies have developed a new gene expression analysis assay that will enable a wider use of blood samples in biomarker discovery and analysis.
Denmark-based Symphogen A/S, which is developing recombinant antibody mixtures for cancer, has promoted Martin Olin, the company’s chief financial officer, to the position of chief executive officer and member of the board of directors.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a lethal motor neurone disease that progressively paralyses patients, has many different genetic causes, according to studies coordinated by the University Medical Center of Utrecht, which has reported the discovery of two new ALS genes.
German scientists have clarified the way in which cancer cells spread from a primary tumour to distant parts of the body in a process called metastasis. It has been known for some time that cancer cells travel through the bloodstream to reach other locations, but how they escape from blood vessels has not been clear.
Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd is continuing plans to bring its antibiotic ceftobiprole to the US market, while tightening control over its early-stage portfolio. In a report on the first-half year on 15 August, it disclosed plans to drop a preclinical, inhaled antibiotic candidate after a data review.
After years of investing in a product for stroke that failed, and then relaunching its portfolio around anaesthesia, Paion AG now has its sights firmly set on the commercialisation of its lead product, remimazolam, in the US.
The Wellcome Trust, one of the largest sources of private medical investment in Europe, has appointed Jim Smith as its director of science, a role that puts him in charge of scientific investigations and oversight of the Trust’s scientific investment portfolio.
Pharming Group NV has reached an agreement to take back North American commercialisation rights for its recombinant therapy for hereditary angioedema (HAE), Ruconest, from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc giving it a chance to build a dedicated US sales force.
Germany-based Affimed NV is turning its focus to prospective combination therapies for its bispecific antibody portfolio, highlighted by the start of a Phase 1b study in the US combining its lead product AFM13 with the Merck & Co Inc immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab).