Affimed's tetravalent antibody technology could complement the effects of checkpoint modulators in cancer immune therapy. © Affimed

Roche’s US arm Genentech has licenced Affimed NV’s ROCK platform to add multivalent antibodies, which could activate the innate immune system, to its cancer pipeline.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) will tender £30m (€33.2m) to tackle the suffering and devastation caused by heart and circulatory diseases.

© Shire plc

Orphan drug leader Shire plc (Dublin), has received the FDA’s approval for its antibody lanadelumab-flyo, which prevents hereditary angioedema (HAE) attacks.

Blocking the extracellular matrix (ECM) enzyme leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H) dampens inflammation but promotes changes in the airways of mice with allergic asthma due to accumulation of the ECM degradation product PGP.

A pancreatic islet from a mouse in a typical position, close to a blood vessel; insulin in red, nuclei in blue. © Jakob Suckale

Novo Nordisk and Evotec have joined forces to find new drugs in the lucrative diabetes and obesity markets.

Cholangitis leads to liver fibrosis and ends up in cirrhosis. @ Genkyotex SA

French Genkyotex SA has secured an €7.5m gross financing to expand the scope of its Phase II product GKT831 in Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC).

Roche AG’s ALK blocker Alecensa (alectinib) has been granted market approval by China National Drug Administration as first line NSCLC monotherapy in patients with ALK-positive non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

 BioNTech AG has partnered with Pfizer to develop a mRNA-based flu vaccine. 

Langerhans cells (red) are immune cells in the skin and keratinocytes (blue) are the cells that make up the top layer of the skin. The image shows Langerhans cells positioned in close association with the keratinocytes that Langerhans cells protect against sunlight-induced injury. © W.D. Shipman

EGFR agonists support the protective effect of Langerhans against UV-induced damage of skin cells, a hallmark of lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune and dermatologic conditions, a team of US and German researchers report.

A team of Scots, Belgian and Spanish researchers claim they have found a target to prevent failure of liver regeneration following intoxination or acute injury.