About 300 bioeconomy experts from science and business came together in Strasbourg for the first edition of BIOKET to discuss up-scaling challenges, new processing technologies as well as the potential of synthetic biology and digitalization.
Evotec and Sanofi want to create an Evotec-led infectious disease open innovation R&D platform at Sanofis antiinfectives hub in Lyon. Talks are expected to close in H1/2018 with an option agreement.
Under an exclusive licence option agreement, Heidelberg Pharma will develop ATACs (alpha-amanitin antibody conjugates) for Magenta Therapeutics Inc. across several targeted conditioning programmes for bone marrow transplants.
Investments into new drugs to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are set to boost the participation of SMEs. At the 11th Berlin Conference on Life Sciences, two new financing initiatives, which focus on innovations developed by SMEs, were presented to 200+ AMR stakeholders.
Swiss Santhera Pharmaceuticals EU-approved LHON treatment Raxone (idebenone) has failed to show clinical efficacy in another indication: After US and EU regulators rejected an extension of market approval in Duchenne muscular dystrophy last September, an NIH-sponsored trail now showed no difference to placebo treatment in patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS).
An US-German team has found a way to halt the inflammatory brain cell destruction in mice with multiple sclerosis (MS) without suppression of the human immune system.
Liège-based Convert Pharmaceuticals SA has been granted a total of €13.6m in equity and non-dilutive funding by investors Droia Oncology Ventures, Meusinvest and Spinventure, with non-dilutive support by the Walloon region and funds from the European Eurostars programme.
Novo Holdings has launched the REPAIR impact fund commissioned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The goal is to invest into early-stage drug developers with new concepts to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
AstraZeneca (AZ) and Bavarian Nordic (BN) combine BNs cancer vaccine CV301 and AZs PD-L1 checkpoint blocker durvalumab in an investigator-sponsored trail to check synergistic effects in patients with colorectal and pancreatic cancer overexpressing CEA and MUC-1.
The European Medicines Agencys (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended three medicines, two thereof orphan drugs, at its February 2018 meeting.