Reported inducers of CRS. © Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2018(6):56

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.

Formats of bi-specific antibodies. ©Open-i

Immuncheckpoint specialist Oxford BioTherapeutics has licenced the right to develop five bispecific antibodies for combination therapies using Wuxi Biologics’ WuXiBody platform.

© 123rf.com/Supparsorn Wantarnagon_

An analysis of health records of the whole Scottish population aged ?30 years revealed that people with diabetes have an increased risk for heart failure.

© 123rf.com/?????? ???????

British drugmaker AstraZeneca (AZ) has missed another opportunity to secure a share in the lucrative immunoncology market: a Phase III trial combining durvalumab with tremelimumab missed the survival endpoint.

© 123rf.com/belchonock

LSP and Sofinnova Ventures co-led the financing of the Amsterdam-based gene therapy specialist  XyloCor Therapeutics.

BioFIT took place in Lille between December 4th and 5th.

For two days, Lille was the place to be for partnering in early stage innovation. On December 5th, Europe’s leading tech transfer event BioFIT wrapped up, recording a record number of participants.

123rf.com/Sebastian Kaulitzki

Uncommon mutations in three genes in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer have a negative impact on disease prognosis reports a team of British and Australian researchers in Nature Communications. 


GSK's head office in Brentford, London. © an Wilson - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39915239

GlaxoSmithKline said it will pay $75 per share in cash to take over US oncology player Tesaro, whose FDA-approved DNA repair blocker nirparib (Zejula) made only US$166m in sales in Q1-3/2018.

© Argenx SE

Janssen affiliate Cilag GmbH International has licenced argenx’ anti-CD70 antibody cusatuzumab (ARGX-110) for US$300m upfront.

© 123rf.com/Bakhtiar Zein

Swiss, French and German researchers have unraveled a molecular pathway that might be useful to prevent Graft-versus-Host Disease (GVHD) in leukemic recipients of blood stem cell transplants.