German Wilex has licensed its clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) antibody Redectane to Australian biopharma company Telix Pharmaceuticals. Redectane is a radiolabeled version of Wilex’ Phase III therapeutic antibody girentuximab.

“Severe economic and environmental damage”: A study commissioned by EU industry association Euroseeds says that the ban of a certain class of insecticides to protect bees causes a lot of ecologic and economic burden.

For thirty years, industry has worked hard to establish vaccines that can cure cancer. At the 35th JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, German Curevac reported another failure. It remains open whether cancer vaccines or co-administration of other drug classes to immune checkpoint modulators can break solid tumour’s immune tolerance tactics.

German researchers have found a biomarker that reliably predicts outcomes of blood cancer treatment with the chemotherapeutic cytarabine. Targeting the biomarker restored cytarabine sensitivity.

After the record-breaking year of 2015, biotech stock markets exercised more caution in 2016. However, according to a new report, this represents a “healthy reset” rather than a new crisis. 

Roche is expanding its indications in cancer immunotherapy. Following FDA approvals of its PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab in NSCLC and bladder cancer patients refractive to platinum-based chemotherapy, the Swiss pharma major is awaiting a FDA decision on whether the antibody is suitable as first-line treatment in a further subpopulation of bladder cancer patients.

Constitutive activation of the mechano-sensor and transcription factor Yes-associated protein (YAP) is key to metastasis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of triple-negative breast cancer, researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, report.

Neuronal hypersensitivity specialist NeRRe Therapeutics has closed an oversubscribed Series B financing round led by Fountain Healthcare Partners.

The Innovative Medicines Initiative is pushing clinical development of a novel compound against Gram-negative bugs that cause urinary tract and intra-abdominal infections. Backed by IMI, Aicuris is launching a clinical programme for an antibiotic.

The London-based immunotherapy specialist Tiziana Life Sciences bagged the license for the human anti-interleukin 6 receptor antagonist NI-1201 from Swiss Novimmune.