Entries by Thomas Gabrielczyk

Endothelial disruption: From bench to bedside

Bio-ADM, the very first blood biomarker capable to diagnose when blood vessels become leaky (endothelial dysfunction), is set to make a rapid carrier at intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency departments (EDs) of hospitals. Data from pilot clinical routine testing presented at the 2nd Scientific Symposium on Endothelial Disruption (18. December 2018) in Berlin impressively confirmed results from previous tests on 30,000 patients with acute heart failure (AHF) and severe sepsis indicating that bio-ADM testing improves medical decision making to prevent mortality, organ damage and rehospitalisation. An automated point-of-care (POC) test measuring bio-ADM  both as a biomarker and as a companion diagnostic to a therapeutic antibody (adrecizumab) that repairs endothelial dysfunction, will be launched by H1/2019 by Sphingotec GmbH. However, bio-ADM is just the first representative of a full pipeline of diagnostic blood proteins reflecting disturbed signalling pathways underlying disorders of unmet medical need.

Sanofi ends immuno-oncology discovery with Regeneron

Sanofi and Regeneron announced they have "restructured" their US$2,17bn immunoncology collaboration. While the companies will continue co-marketing of the FDA approved  (2018) PD1 blocker cemiplimab (REGN2810) as treatment for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, Sanofi will quit development of early stage antibody discovery programmes under the 2015 agreement.  

Microbiome defines gut conditions

Differences in microbiome composition can help to distinguish inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Dutch and US researchers report.

New cheap CRS-blockers at the horizon

Cancer immunotherapies are often associated with severe cytokine release syndrome (CRS) that can be managed with IL-6R-blockers. US oncologists now report that an FDA-approved hypertension drug did the same job as Roche’s anti-IL-6R blocker tocolizumab.